INDIA singed by UP RS test, SP to rejig LS game plan, Congress worry grows over Amethi, Raebareli

While the outcome of the elections to the 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh Tuesday dealt a blow to the Samajwadi Party (SP), it also has ramifications for the Opposition INDIA alliance just ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP bagged eight of these 10 seats as against the SP’s two, even though the Akhilesh Yadav-led party was poised to win three seats based on the number of its legislators.

The BJP managed to get its eighth nominee, industrialist Sanjay Seth, elected while the SP’s third candidate, ex-bureaucrat Alok Ranjan, lost as seven of the SP MLAs cross-voted.

The Upper House polls were billed as the first litmus test for the INDIA bloc, whose constituents in the state now include the SP and the Congress. After the setback that the SP got, some of the alliance leaders fear that it may even impact the allies’ prospects in some key “winnable” seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Rajya Sabha poll results also saw the Congress training its guns on the BSP, which it had been avoiding so far in a bid to woo the party into the INDIA fold.

State Congress president Ajay Rai said, “The way lone BSP MLA (Uma Shankar Singh) voted for BJP in Rajya Sabha polls has made the intentions of BSP clear that it is working as B-team of BJP.”

He pointed out that both Congress MLAs, Aradhana Mishra and Virendra Chaudhary, voted for the SP’s candidates.

The Congress camp also expressed surprise that the SP was caught off-guard even as Akhilesh’s trusted faces like the SP’s chief whip Manoj Pandey quit while the polling was still underway.

Of the SP MLAs who cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidates, Manoj Pandey represents the Unchahar Assembly segment of the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat, while

Rakesh Pratap Singh represents the Gauriganj