Worried over the possibility of cross-voting in June 11 Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh later this week, major political parties are walking the extra mile to keep their flock together for victory of extra candidates.
With barely three days left for the contest, forced by the presence of two extra candidates for the Rajya Sabha and state Legislative Council elections, hectic activities were seen in ruling Samajwadi Party camp today.
Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav met SP MLAs all through the day, giving the message of remaining united.
Any cross voting during the elections would send a wrong signal to voters ahead of 2017 Assembly polls in the state, Yadav told the lawmakers, sources said.
Samajwadi Party has fielded seven candidates for the polls to the Upper House of Parliament but the seventh candidate of the party is short of nine first-preference votes for victory.
In the 403-member Assembly, SP has 229 MLAs, BSP 80, BJP 41 and Congress 29. The rest belong to small parties or are Independents who hold the key.
For victory in Rajya Sabha, a candidate needs 34 votes.
Worried over the chances of cross-voting in favour of Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra who has been supported by 16 BJP MLAs, BSP supremo Mayawati has convened a meeting of party MLAs on June 9.
Mahapatra, a social worker, had filed her papers at the last moment as the 12th candidate for the 11 seats at stake.
BJP MLAs can elect their party nominee, Uttar Pradesh unit vice-president and former minister Shiv Pratap Shukla, and will have seven extra votes.
BSP's newfound aggression against BJP is seen as its retaliation to the saffron party's concerted bid to make inroads into its Dalit votebank. BSP's tactical move could help legal luminary and senior Congressman Kapil Sibal, who is facing some pressure after Mahapatra jumped into the fray.
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Rashtriya Lok Dal with eight MLAs has gained sudden
importance in the scramble for surplus votes with leaders of various parties already in touch with RLD chief Ajit Singh. He is in talks with Samajwadi Party to stitch up an alliance in western UP.
The RS candidates in the fray are, Amar Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Kuwar Rewati Raman Singh, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Sukhram Singh Yadav, Sanjay Seth and Surendra Nagar (all SP), Satish Chandra Mishra and Ashok Sidharth (both BSP), Kapil Sibal (Congress), Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP) and Preeti Mahapatra (Independent).
Similarly, with 14 candidates trying their luck for 13 seats of the Legislative Council, cross-voting by MLAs remains a probability.
Each candidate needs 29 first-preference votes to get elected to the UP Council.
BJP, with the support of an Independent MLA, has named two candidates for the Legislative Council and will need 16 additional votes for its second candidate.
Polling for the Legislative Council is slated for June 10.
The candidates vying for the Council seats are Yashwant Singh, Bukkal Nawab, Ram Sunder Das Nishad, Balram Yadav, Jagjivan Prasad, Shatrughan Prakash, Kamlesh Pathak and Ranvijay Singh (all SP), Atar Singh Rao, Dinesh Chandra and Suresh Kashyap (BSP), Bhupendra Choudhury and Dayashanker Singh (both BJP) and Deepak Singh (Cong).
