10 seats, 11 candidates: In UP, RS poll heat rises as BJP, SP join numbers war

Uttar Pradesh is headed for the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections to fill the 10 seats that are falling vacant, with the two largest parties, the ruling BJP and the principal Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP), appearing to have enough members in the state Assembly to elect seven and three Rajya Sabha MPs, respectively.

However, with the BJP fielding its eighth candidate, the fight for the 10th Rajya Sabha seat in the state has become an interesting one, with both the BJP and the SP looking to edge out each other in the polls.

On Thursday, when the BJP’s Sanjay Seth filed his nomination for the Upper House polls, he became the party’s eighth candidate to do so.

Seth was previously elected to the Rajya Sabha as an SP candidate in June 2016. He later switched to the BJP fold.

The BJP has also nominated former Union minister R P N Singh, ex-MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, state party general secretary Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain for the Upper House.

The SP’s Rajya Sabha list includes senior leader and actor Jaya Bachchan, Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman and former state chief secretary Alok Ranjan.

If the BJP had not nominated an eighth candidate, the state would not have needed an election as all 10 candidates would have won unopposed. But with 11 candidates in the fray, the polls will take place to determine the 10 winners.

Currently, the state has 399 MLAs with four seats in the Assembly being vacant. The Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by a system of proportional representation, according to which each candidate in UP will require at least 37 votes to win.

The BJP has 252 MLAs and its NDA allies account for 34 MLAs – 13