Counting of votes in UP Rajya Sabha elections begins after 2-hour delay

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 23

Counting of votes for the Rajya Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh began after a two-hour delay, Joint CEO RC Rai informed on Friday. 

After the announcement of the first Rajya Sabha result declaring Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely a winner, the counting had come to a stop reportedly following BSP’s complaint to the Election Commission demanding cancellation of the votes of two rebel candidates — SP’s Nitin Agarwal and BSP’s Anil Singh.

According to the BSP’s complaint both these MLAs had not shown their vote to their respective party’s polling agent.

There is also a complaint about the BJP polling agent tearing four ballot papers, added sources.

While the votes of these two MLAs have reportedly gone in favour of the BJP it is being claimed that Kailash Nath Sonkar, one of the four MLAs of BJP alliance partner Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj party, has cross voted in favour of the BSP.

It was a day of seesaw of fortunes as reports of cross voting from both sides were speculated and some MLAs such as Anil Singh of the BSP left nothing to speculation.

BSP MLA from Purwa in Unnao Anil Singh admitted that his vote had gone to Maharaj ji (Yogi Aditynath).

Late on Thursday night, Anil Singh was seen heading towards the chief minister’s 5 Kalidas road residence for a dinner meeting which made it clear which way his vote would go.

Son of former SP leader Naresh Agarwal and Hardoi MLA Nitin Agarwal following his father’s footsteps was a foregone conclusion.

Nitin Agarwal had even attended the pre-poll meeting called by CM Yogi at his residence for party MLAs on Thursday.

The combined opposition suffered a setback when at the last minute the two jailed MLAs belonging to the SP and the BSP were denied permission to vote at today’s crucial Rajya Sabha election.

They are BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari and SP MLA Hariom Yadav. 

NISHAD party MLA Vijay Misra has been vocal about cross voting in favour of the BJP despite his party being an alliance partner of SP.

Independent MLA and murder accused Aman Mani Tripathi also voted for the BJP claiming to have “followed the guidelines of Maharaj ji” (Yogi Adityanath).

Meanwhile, independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya left everyone guessing till the very last moment today.

He had tweeted that he had not changed and neither had his ideology. “I am with Akhilesh ji but this does not mean that I am with BSP. I will vote for SP candidate (Jaya Bachchan)”.

Raja Bhaiyya’s anti-BSP stand is well-known as he and his father Uday Pratap Singh had been booked under POTA in 2003 by the then Chief Minister Mayawati who accused them of plotting to topple her government.

Shortly after Raja Bhaiyya’s tweet, SP national president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, “Thank you for supporting Samajwadi Party” with his photograph with Raja Bhaiyya.

Raja Bhaiyya was one of the last legislators to cast his vote and immediately after casting his vote he proceeded to meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that sent rumour mills spinning.

Whether his associate and another independent MLA from Pratgarh, Vinod Saroj, voted for the combined opposition is still not clear.

He reportedly told reporters that he follows Raja Bhaiyya’s instructions but did not do what he did.

The allies of the BJP in UP—Apna Dal that has nine MLAs and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party that has four MLAs— claim to have voted in favour of the BJP as claimed by their party heads.

The 17 BSP MLAs came together to cast their votes and so did the seven Congress MLAs.

Jaswant Nagar MLA Shivpal Yadav was the first to cast his vote from the Samajwadi party.

A total of 400 of the 403 legislators cast their votes on Friday. One seat is vacant following the death of BJP MLA Lokendra Pratap Singh and two imprisoned MLAs could not vote.

Voting ended around 3 pm an hour before the scheduled time.