Elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh are to be held on October 16. SP has finalized the names of its candidates for two seats, but churning is going on within the party regarding the third seat. The names of Gurjar leader Chaudhary Rudrasen, former MP Salim Sherwani and former minister Arvind Singh Gope are being discussed as possible candidates.
Tezzbuzz Desk– Currently 6 seats are vacant in the 403-member Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. In such a situation, the effective MLA number for Rajya Sabha elections is 397. According to this mathematics, a candidate will need 37 first preference votes to win. BJP has 256 MLAs, while NDA's strength including allies is said to be 292. By adding the support of two MLAs of Jansatta Dal Loktantrik, this number reaches 294.
SP has declared the names of Ram Gopal Yadav and former Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan for two seats of Rajya Sabha. SP has 101 MLAs in the assembly, while two Congress MLAs are also said to be with it. In this way, SP-Congress have the support of a total of 103 MLAs. 74 votes will be required for two candidates and after that 29 votes will be left.
SP will have to garner additional support for the third seat. The party is said to be facing the challenge of getting the support of about 8 additional MLAs. About 3 MLAs from RLD and 4 from SBSP are said to be in touch with SP. Apart from this, it will be important for the party to retain the SP MLAs who cross-voted in favor of BJP last time.
It is being told that Akhilesh Yadav has put a condition before the contenders for the third seat. The leader who will be able to garner the support of required number of MLAs, his claim can be strengthened. For this reason the names of Salim Sherwani, Rudrasen Chaudhary and Arvind Singh Gop are in discussion.
Salim Sherwani is among the prominent Muslim faces of SP. He has been a five-time MP and has also been a minister in the Gujral government at the Centre. In the last Lok Sabha elections, he had claimed ticket from Badaun, but later the party made Aditya Yadav its candidate. After this, reports of Sherwani's displeasure came to light, although later Akhilesh Yadav convinced him.
On the other hand, the name of Rudrasen Chaudhary, who is counted among the prominent Gurjar leaders of Western Uttar Pradesh, is also among the possible candidates. He is carrying forward the political legacy of Chaudhary Yashpal Singh. Rudrasen had contested elections from Gangoh assembly seat in 2012 on SP ticket, but had to face defeat. In December 2017, he was made the Saharanpur district president of SP. Later his role increased in the party organization and in 2023 he was made the National General Secretary of SP.
The third name is of Arvind Singh Gop. Senior SP leader and former minister Arvind Singh Gop is counted among the leaders close to Akhilesh Yadav. According to sources, the party leadership is also considering his name. One argument being given in his favor is that he may get the support of Raja Bhaiya's party. Apart from this, he is also said to have good relations with some MLAs who rebelled against SP.
In such a situation, it will become clear in the coming days on which face SP trusts for the third seat of Rajya Sabha. At present, the party faces the challenge of deciding the candidate as well as garnering the support of the required MLAs.