Standing along with Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow, the Samajwadi Party (SP) officially locked in its top nominees – party veteran Ram Gopal Yadav and Reliance Group President Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani. New Delhi: The fight for UP’s 10 Rajya Sabha seats is heating up ahead of October 16.
Three constituencies are vacant at present. The Jan Satta Dal Loktantrik has two MLAs and the Congress has two. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has one MLA, while three former SP members are listed as unattached. The SP and the Congress together have enough votes for two seats. They are Abbas Ansari, Jagdish Narayan, Dudhram and Hansu Ram. The official Uttar Pradesh Assembly website lists all four as SBSP MLAs. It also lists SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and Bedi Ram among the party’s six legislators.
The Bharaatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance therefore has the numbers for eight seats based on its present strength. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly has 403 seats. The BJP has 257 MLAs, while the SP has 102. The Apna Dal has 13 MLAs, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) 9, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) 6 and the Nishad Party 5. The quota for one Rajya Sabha seat is 37 votes under the present effective strength.
He lost after several SP MLAs cross-voted for BJP candidates. All eight BJP candidates and two SP candidates won the election. The SP’s strategy has changed the immediate picture. The party has formally named only two candidates, Ram Gopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani. Nathwani is Group President of Reliance Industries and also holds senior positions in other Reliance group companies. He is also president of the Gujarat Cricket Association and the Gujarat State Football Association. The party nominated former Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan along with two other candidates.
The four MLAs won their assembly seats as SBSP candidates in the 2022 election when the party was allied with the SP. Ram Gopal has been a Rajya Sabha member since 2004 and is the party’s national general secretary. The 2024 Rajya Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh also saw the SP field a third candidate.
The SP is seeking support from the four SBSP MLAs for the Rajya Sabha election, according to the Hindustan Times. The four MLAs have been in contact with the party leadership, the report said.
