Ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, eight MLAs from the Samajwadi Party skipped a meeting convened by party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The meeting was intended to brief MLAs about the voting process for the upcoming elections.
According to a senior SP leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Akhilesh Yadav called the meeting to inform MLAs about the voting procedure for the Rajya Sabha polls. However, the party’s chief whip in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Manoj Pandey, along with seven other MLAs—Mukesh Verma, Maharaji Prajapati, Pooja Pal, Rakesh Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, Rakesh Pratap Singh, and Abhay Singh—were absent.
Confirming the absence of eight MLAs from the dinner and meeting called by Akhilesh Yadav, SP’s national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary refrained from disclosing their names. He mentioned that Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel, who is also an SP MLA, did not attend the meeting but had a separate discussion with Yadav, expressing support for SP candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections.
Chaudhary expressed confidence in the victory of all three SP candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls but noted that the true stance of the absent MLAs would only become apparent during the voting on Tuesday.
In Uttar Pradesh, a contest is anticipated for one of the ten Rajya Sabha seats, with the BJP fielding eight candidates and the SP three. The BJP’s decision to nominate Sanjay Seth, a former SP leader, has intensified the electoral battle.
The BJP and SP are the two largest parties in the 403-member state assembly, with 252 and 108 MLAs, respectively. The Congress, in alliance with the SP, holds two seats, while BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 seats. The NISHAD Party, RLD, SBSP, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik, and the BSP collectively hold 24 seats, with four seats currently vacant.
