Rajya Sabha polls: As 5 Samajwadi Party MLAs hint at cross-voting, BJP set to deal INDIA another blow

The voting for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant from Uttar Pradesh started around 9 am Tuesday with a series of blows to the Samajwadi Party, including the resignation of its chief whip himself, Manoj Kumar Pandey.

Two other MLAs, whose seats fall in the parliamentary constituencies of Amethi and Raebareli, said they would go with their “antaratma ki awaaz (inner voice)” and that “Lord Ram” was in their “heart”, indicating that their vote might help the BJP pick one extra seat than its numbers indicated, and cause one of the SP’s candidates to lose.

Sources said that apart from these three MLAs, two legislators of the SP had also met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at his office on the Assembly premises as voting happened.

An upset Akhilesh Yadav, the SP chief, said he was hopeful of the party’s three candidates winning, while accusing the BJP of “luring” its people away and of stopping at nothing.

It was just before going in to vote that Pandey, the SP MLA from Unchahar Assembly constituency in Raebareli, announced his resignation.

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Rakesh Pratap Singh, the SP MLA from Gauriganj Assembly seat in Amethi, told reporters: “Antaratma ki awaaz pe vote karna hai (I must vote as per my conscience).” On a question about the Ram Temple and whether that was a factor, he said: “Ram kan-kan mein hain, Ram man-man mein hain (Lord Ram is everywhere).”

Abhay Singh, the SP MLA from Gosaiganj Assembly seat of Ayodhya, said he would not reveal whom he had voted for before casting his vote, but also added: “Bhagwan Ram hamare aaradhya hain, hum to unhi ke kul khandan ke hain (Ram is our Lord, we are from his own family).”

SP sources conceded that now, on the basis of its first preference votes,