BJP knocks BSP out in UP RS poll

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 23

Owing to cross-voting, BJP-backed Independent Anil Agarwal defeated BSP’s Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who was supported by the Opposition, in the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections. The SP won one seat, that of Jaya Bachchan. 

The BJP’s eight winning MPs are Arun Jaitley, Anil Jain, Ashok Bajpai, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narsimha Rao, Kanta Kardam, Sakal Deep Rajbhar and Vijaya Pal Singh Tomar.

BSP’s Ambedkar managed 33 first preference votes against 22 votes polled by the BJP-supported Agarwal, who won due to the overwhelming second preference and third preference votes.

The BSP’s Unnao MLA voted for the BJP. Jailed MLAs Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP and Hariom Yadav of the SP being denied permission to vote also ruined the chances of BSP’s Ambedkar.

If this will have any impact on the SP-BSP alliance in the future is difficult to say. The SP, Congress and RLD all voted for the BSP nominee, but the party was let down by its own MLA.

In West Bengal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress and four nominees of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress — Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Md Nadimul Haq and Santanu Sen — sailed to victory. For Nadimul Haq, it will be his second consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha. 

Singhvi, whose last stint in the Rajya Sabha was from Rajasthan, contested from West Bengal after TMC chief and CM Mamata Banerjee announced support for him for the fifth seat. 

BJP national general secretary Saroj Pandey won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Chhattisgarh,  defeating Congress rival Lekhram Sahu.

Telangana’s ruling TRS bagged all three seats. B Prakash, J Santosh Kumar and AB Lingaiah Yadav were elected to the Upper House. Congress candidate P Balram Naik lost. Left Front-backed MP Veerendra Kumar, 80, won the RS byelection from Kerala against Congress’ Babu Prasad.

The ruling Congress in Karnataka bagged three seats and the BJP one amid a boycott by the JD(S), alleging malpractice. Congress’ Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Dr SN Hussain and GC Chandrasekhar, as also BJP’s Rajeev Chandrashekar were declared elected after a complaint by the JD(S) delayed counting. 

(With PTI inputs)