Jayant named joint candidate of SP, RLD
LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday announced Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary as the joint SP-RLD candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha polls on 11 Uttar Pradesh seats, ending suspense over his nomination.
Jayant will file his nomination papers on May 30, team RLD national coordinator Anupam Mishra said.
Dimple Yadav, SP’S former Kannauj MP and party president Akhilesh Yadav’s wife (whose name was also among the SP probables) is now likely to be the SP candidate in the forthcoming Lok Sabha bypolls on the Azamgarh seat vacated by Akhilesh.
Unlike Akhilesh or Om Prakash Rajbhar (another SP ally), Jayant did not contest this year’s UP assembly polls. Both Akhilesh and Rajbhar had won their seats.
Former Congress leader Kapil Sibal filed his nomination as an Sp-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls on Wednesday. Javed Ali Khan filed his nomination an hour later, also as an SP candidate.
“Jayant Chaudhary will be the joint candidate of the SP and RLD,” the SP tweeted.
Retweeting the SP announcement, Chaudhary wrote in Hindi: “Will move ahead with confidence; in honour of youth, workers, farmers.”
With 273 MLAS in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, the ruling Bjpled NDA will easily be able to get eight members elected to the Upper House of Parliament, while the SP and its allies (RLD and SBSP), with a strength of 125 legislators, will be able to ensure the victory of three candidates.
Uttar Pradesh sends 31 members to the Rajya Sabha. RLD has eight MLAS. Among the 11 retiring MPS from the state, five are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three from the SP, two from the
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one from the Congress (Kapil Sibal). Apart from Sibal, those whose tenures are ending include Satish Chandra Mishra of the BSP and Reoti Raman Singh of the SP.
With 403 elected members in the the state assembly, a candidate will require at least 34 votes for victory. The outcome of the state assembly election held in February-march has changed the equation this time. The Congress has only two MLAS in the assembly, while the BSP has one.
Two senior BSP leaders -Mishra and Ashok Siddharth -will retire from the Upper House in July, after which the party will have only one member, Ramji Gautam, in the Rajya Sabha.
The SP is not repeating any of its three RS members who are retiring.
“Jayant’s nomination was foregone conclusion. Sibal’s was a surprise. Both the selections are mature decision of Akhilesh Yadav. In the shifting, opportunistic alliance politics, SP-RLD has emerged as strong and stable partnership”, Prof SK Dwivedi, a UP politics analyst and former head of department of political science at Lucknow University, said.