All 9 BJP candidates win nail-biting contest in UP

Winning 12 out of 26 seats across seven states, the BJP increased its strength in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

It also won nine seats in the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, including one in a nailbiting contest against a combined opposition candidate from the BSP. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao and actress-politician Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party (SP) were the prominent winners in Uttar Pradesh.

The Election Commission had in February announced vacancies for 59 seat in 17 states, and 33 candidates in 10 states were elected unopposed. Elections were held in 26 seats in seven states on Friday. In all, the BJP won 28 seats, which is a gain of 11 seats in the Upper House where the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a minority. The gains came mainly from Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP won a three-fourths majority in assembly elections last year. The Congress won nine seats and suffered a loss of five seats.

“Congratulations to all those elected to the Rajya Sabha from various states and best wishes for their Parliamentary career. I hope they effectively voice the aspirations of the states they will represent,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter.

All eyes had been on UP, where the BJP secured a clear victory in eight out of 10 seats and Samajwadi Party in one.

But the contest for the tenth seat saw cross-voting by members of the BSP and SP and was decided by counting of the second preference votes of legislators.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on Friday outlined to party MPs a mega outreach programme aimed at “winning hearts” of workers and public ahead of the 2019 parliamentary election. In the first such assembly at the BJP’s newly built headquarters here, Modi told MPs that workers are “keys to victory” and they should be with them through ups and downs.

“Jeet ka mantra karyaktra hi hai. Hum 2019 jitenge, lekin aap log karyakarta ka dil jiteye (Workers are key to victory. We will win 2019 election, but you should win the hearts of party workers),” an MP who attended the meeting quoted Modi as saying. HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said Modi also asked party leaders to work on the ground.

BJP’s media head Anil Balluni said the party has decided on a Gram Suraj Abhiyan between April 14 and May 5 in every part of the country to connect with the public via programmes to observe the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar and spread awareness about government welfare measures.

In his speech, Shah reiterated the importance of booth management in winning election, and set a target of 20 new workers on each polling station of the country.

Javadekar said Shah asked MPs to make the best use of the extended weekend in the current session of Parliament and return to their constituencies to educate people about how the opposition has stalled proceedings for three weeks in the second half of the budget session. Each MP has been asked to address press conferences in his state. “Modi laid emphasis on the importance of party offices in BJP structure because we are a party that is not run from the house of an individual,” he quoted Modi as saying. “He told MPs they have better facilities and technologies available to communicate with people and should use them to expose the opposition,” Javadekar said.