SWEET REVENGE, BJP OUTWITS BSP IN UP

The BJP, smarting under the loss in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, has outsmarted the BSP in the race for a Rajya Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP-backed Anil Aggarwal beat BSP’s Bhim Rao Ambedkar in a cliff-hanger that pitted a shrewd Mayawati against poll strategist Amit Shah. The BJP now has nine more Rajya Sabha seats from UP; Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party secured one seat for its candidate Jaya Bachchan.

The results have come days after Mayawati helped Samajwadi Party wrest two parliamentary seats from the ruling party in by-polls.

Mayawati had been promised Samajwadi Party's surplus votes as part of a quid pro arrangement in which the arch rivals had teamed up to defeat the BJP in bypolls earlier this month. But Akhilesh didn't have enough surplus lawmakers to meet his pledge. However, the defeat is likely to draw the SP and the BJP even closer.

Mayawati had 18 MLAs but needed the first preference votes of 37 to win the seat. Soon after voting started, she received a jolt. Her party's Anil Kumar Singh declared that he had cross-voted for the BJP. "I am with Maharajji (Yogi Adityanath)," he announced.

For Mayawati, the defeat had an element of poetic justice. One of the two independents whose votes would have helped was Raja Bhaiyya, who was jailed by Mayawati in the past. He said he would back the SP but also met Yogi after voting. The other independent member was his aide Vinod Saroj, who voted for the BJP.A third independent MLA, Aman Mani Tripathi, who was sidelined by the SP, also voted for the BJP candidate and called Yogi his mentor.

Among other notable winners elsewhere in the country were Congress’ Kumar Ketkar from Maharashtra, Arun Jaitley from Uttar Pradesh, BJP’s Saroj Pandey

from Chhattisgarh and Anil Baluni from Uttarakhand. In Karnataka, the Congress bagged three seats while the BJP won the fourth after high drama as the JD(S) boycotted voting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to twitter to congratulate the winners of the elections. The verdict is a fillip for chief minister Adityanath, who spearheaded the Rajya Sabha poll preparations after facing questions over the loss to SP in Gorakhpur.

JAYAJI WON OVER BUAJI

Briefly, Akhilesh toyed with the idea of his nominee Jaya Bachchan backing out and his lawmakers sending Mayawati's candidate instead to the Rajya Sabha. But "Jayaji" won out over "Bua-ji," reported a TV channel. The BJP needed eight votes to win its ninth seat. Samajwadi lawmaker Nitin Agrawal cross-voted for the BJP; his father Naresh Agarwal had recently switched from the SP to BJP after being passed over for Jaya Bachchan. BJP's ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) - upset with Yogi - pledged support of its four lawmakers after being placated by Amit Shah.