Rajya Sabha polls: SP MLAs skip Akhilesh's dinner, BJP eyes 8 seats in UP

Voting for the Rajya Sabha election will get underway today. Three states are expected to see heated contests between the BJP and the INDIA bloc.

In Uttar Pradesh the BJP has put up eight Rajya Sabha candidates and the Samajwadi Party 3 for the 10 seats at stake. As per the numbers in the Legislative Assembly the BJP is guarateed to win 7 seat while the SP should win 3 seats. But there are reports that several MLAs could cross vote.

On Monday some legislators of the SP went missing from a dinner hosted by SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav. Reports suggest at least 8 MLAs were missing from the dinner and now the fear is these legislators could abstain from the vote or corss vote, either of which will result in BJP winning its eighth seat in the state.

The SP fears that the BJP is putting pressure on its MLAs, SP leader Zahid Baig said those who rebel would not be forgiven.

"Many people did not come. Maybe they are busy with their work...'Bikau logo ko janta kabhi maaf nahin karegi (The public will not forgive the people)'...If they have taken any money the people will hit them with shoes..." said Samajwadi Party leader Zahid Baig.

On Monday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party is creating pressure on his party's MLAs so that they cross-vote during the Rajya Sabha elections.

"The government is creating pressure on the MLAs for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. This is how they work. They instil fear, threaten people, provoke agency action on them or take up any old case and pressurise them. All these will not work in this election," the Samajwadi Party chief said.

Earlier, all 11 nominations made for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh were found valid, a press release from the Joint Secretary and Assistant Returning Officer of the Vidhan Sabha read.

The seven candidates fielded by the BJP are former Union Minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of the party's Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain.

But with the BJP fielding Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate, a keen contest is on the cards in one of the seats.

The SP has fielded actor MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan, and Ramji Lal Suman.

To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from UP, a candidate needs nearly 37 first preference votes. Voting for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats will be held on Tuesday and the results will be announced the same day.

While the NDA and SP-Congress were negotiating with other parties on Monday in an attempt to gather the necessary support for their candidates, the BJP gained momentum when Raja Bhaiyya's Jansatta Dal-Loktantrik promised to extend the support of its two MLAs to the party.

Following his grandfather Chaudhary Charan Singh being honoured with the Bharat Ratna earlier this month, Jayant Chaudhary had already declared RLD's support for the BJP. RLD's nine MLAs met with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and attended a strategy session at Lok Bhawan with NDA partners.

The term for Rajya Sabha MPs is six years, and elections are held after every two years for 33 per cent of the seats. Currently, the Rajya Sabha has a strength of 245 members.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the country, the outcome of the polls to the Rajya Sabha is likely to have an impact in the politically crucial state.