Rajya Sabha Elections / Ranjan and Jaya-Suman, who will SP make its third candidate?

Rajya Sabha Elections: Elections are on Tuesday for 10 Rajya Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, 11 candidates are trying their luck. Based on the number of MLAs, BJP is certain to win seven Rajya Sabha seats and SP two. BJP is trying to make the eighth candidate Sanjay Seth win, while it remains to be seen who SP will make as its third candidate among Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman and Alok Ranjan on the basis of preference. Only after SP reveals its cards, it will be clear who will compete with Sanjay Seth on Tuesday?

There is going to be a fight between SP and BJP for the 10th seat of Rajya Sabha, for which both the parties are busy in political manipulation and mathematics. RPN Singh, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangeeta Balwant, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sadhna Singh, Naveen Jain and Sanjay Seth are contesting from BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections. Whereas, Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan are Rajya Sabha candidates from SP. BJP's eighth candidate is Sanjay Seth while SP's third candidate is not decided yet.

BJP is trying to win all the eight seats in Rajya Sabha. BJP will give training to all the MLAs of its NDA alliance on Monday at Lok Bhavan to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. Apart from CM Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, Brajesh Pathak, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna and Cooperation Minister JPS Rathore will train the MLAs of BJP, Apna Dal (S), Subhashpa and Nishad Party on how to vote. BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary will be present in the meeting.

At the same time, SP has explained the process of voting in Rajya Sabha elections to its MLAs. On Saturday, Ram Gopal Yadav worked at the state SP headquarters to explain the methods of voting in the Rajya Sabha elections to the MLAs. Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Yadav were present during this period. On this occasion, the MLAs were told what precautions they should take while voting and what things should not be used. During this training, except six MLAs, most of the SP MLAs were present.

According to SP leaders, the MLAs who were not present in the meeting had already given their information to National President Akhilesh Yadav. SP claims that all the MLAs will be present during voting. Pallavi Patel is also being told that the SP leadership has found a solution. SP President Akhilesh Yadav said that all three Rajya Sabha candidates of SP will win and a strategy has been prepared for this. On Monday, SP has once again called all its MLAs to the party office.

SP got a big blow

SP has suffered a major setback before voting in the Rajya Sabha elections. SP MLA Irfan Solanki will not be able to vote, because the court has barred him from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. An application has been filed in the High Court to allow jailed SP MLAs Ramkant Yadav and Irfan Solanki to vote. SP sources say that Ramakant Yadav has got bail from the Supreme Court, but due to time taken in completing the procedural formalities, he has not been able to come out of jail. Therefore, the High Court has been approached to allow them to vote. MP-MLA court has rejected Irfan Solanki's permission application.

Third candidate in Jaya-Suman-Ranjan?

SP has fielded three candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections, out of which two are certain to win, but the third candidate will have to work hard. Who among Jaya Bachchan, Ramjilal Suman and Alok Ranjan does SP make its third candidate on the basis of preference in Rajya Sabha elections? The way questions have been raised in SP regarding PDA in Rajya Sabha elections, SP can make Ramjilal Suman the first candidate. Apart from this, will one of Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan be the third candidate of SP, who will have to compete with Sanjay Seth of BJP?

To make a candidate win in Rajya Sabha, votes of 37 MLAs are needed. SP needs the votes of 111 MLAs to make its three candidates win, it has 108 MLAs, out of which two MLAs are in jail and despite getting the votes of two Congress MLAs, it will need the votes of three more MLAs. That is why SP is busy in adding one vote at a time, for which it has even appealed to Raja Bhaiya. Raja Bhaiya's party has two MLAs. Four MLAs including two women did not come to the meeting called by SP. However, these MLAs had already written a letter to the SP chief saying that they would not come to the training.

What is the game of SP's third candidate?

There is a process of voting in Rajya Sabha elections. Rajya Sabha elections are not conducted by secret ballot nor are EVMs used in it. Here a number from one to four is written in front of the name of each candidate. MLAs have to mark the name of Rajya Sabha candidate on the basis of preference. An MLA can vote only once. MLAs vote on the basis of priority. They have to tell who is their first choice and who is the second. The one who gets first choice votes is considered the winner.

SP will need three additional votes to make its third candidate victorious, for which there is a lot of challenge for the third candidate on the basis of preference. That is why SP is busy in training its MLAs. Ram Gopal told in the SP meeting that in the Rajya Sabha election ballot paper, the MLA has to draw only a vertical line in front of his allotted candidate. It should not touch any other food. Will not vote with your pen in the ballot paper. Only the pen given by the presiding officer will have to be used. After this, all the MLAs will have to cast their vote by showing it to the polling agent. SP has prepared dummy ballot papers for training on voting in the Rajya Sabha elections, training for which will be given to the MLAs again in the party office on Monday.

Mathematics of votes in Rajya Sabha elections

The total number of MLAs in UP Assembly is 403. Of these, 3 members have passed away. One member of BJP is disqualified. Thus, there are a total of 399 MLAs, out of which 3 members are in jail. Two are SP's Ramakant Yadav and Irfan Solanki and one is SubhaSP MLA Abbas Ansari. An application has been filed in the High Court to allow the jailed MLAs to take part in voting in the Rajya Sabha elections. In this way, a Rajya Sabha would require the support of 37 MLAs. BJP needs the support of 296 MLAs to win its 8 Rajya Sabha members while SP needs 111 MLAs to win three Rajya Sabha seats. Jayant Chaudhary's entry into the NDA camp has made the way for the eighth candidate easier for BJP, but victory is not certain. For this, SP and BJP are engaged in arranging one vote each, in which the stake of preference becomes very important.