News Analysis India

Tag: Rajya Sabha polls

  • Uttar Pradesh: SP’s RS picks part of a three-pronged strategy with an eye on 2024 LS polls 

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: After facing a rout in the recently concluded UP Assembly election despite having taken its tally to 111 from 47, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has played his cards in Rajya Sabha polls sensibly following a three-pronged strategy– of mollifying Azam Khan, cementing ties with RLD and keeping the minority community in good humour–with an eye on the general elections of 2024.

    Notably, in the last two general elections—2014 and 2019—SP failed to take its tally of MPs beyond five despite having stitched a grand alliance with arch-rival Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2019.

    However, the SP picks for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, slated for June 10, reflect the strategy to make SP’s fight more robust in 2024. As per the political pundits, by choosing Kapil Sibal, the Samajwadi Party chief has tried to mollify sulking Azam Khan, a senior party leader and Rampur MLA, who had been languishing in jail for 27 months in connection with a series of cases.

    Kapil Sibal represented Azam Khan in a cheating case in Supreme Court and played a crucial role in securing interim bail for him leading to his release from Sitapur District Jail on May 20.SP obliged Sibal who served a great jolt to Congress party by quitting it in the middle of this month.

    The selection of Jayant Chaudhury, too, has political connotations. Besides cementing the SP-RLD alliance further in the wake of 2024 electoral battle, the SP has tried to woo the Jat voters of western UP. However, the alliance was there in the assembly polls as well but it could not reap the results on expected lines in the constituencies dominated by Jats.

    The impact of the tie-up between the two parties, trying to capitalize on the prolonged farmers’ stir, was limited to Shamli, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. Of the 113 seats which went to polls in the first two phases, basically in western UP, the BJP won 78 seats and SP and RLD 45.

    The SP insiders claimed that till the last moment on Wednesday night, Akhilesh’s wife and former MP, Dimple Yadav’s name was doing rounds as the party candidate for Rajya Sabha. This upset Jayant Chaudhury after he got the message that he was put out of the race. Jayant was purportedly promised an RS seat by Akhilesh during the UP assembly polls.

    ALSO READ | BJP government ruined health services in Uttar Pradesh: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav

    However, sensing a potential threat to the alliance, the SP chief changed his decision and met the RLD MLAs on Thursday morning before announcing Jayant as the joint SP-RLD candidate for the upper house.

    Highly-placed SP sources also claimed that though Akhilesh had promised to send Jayant Chaudhary to the Rajya Sabha but they had a disagreement. While Akhilesh Yadav wanted Jayant in the upper house as a Samajwadi Party’s member, latter was insisting on representing his own party RLD backed by the SP.

    Fearing that BJP may woo Jayant before 2024, Akhilesh finally took the call in his favour and declared him the Joint candidate of SP and RLD. Moreover, the third candidate named by Akhilesh Yadav is Javed Ali Khan who has filed his nomination papers for the upper house. 

    “The decision in favour of Javed Ali Khan also seems to be party’s well thought out three-pronged strategy of mollifying Azam Khan, cementing tie-up with RLD and keeping the minority community in good humour for better prospects in 2024,” said Prof AK Mishra, a political scientist.

    It may be recalled that after consolidating in favour of SP in the 2022 polls, the minority community had not been happy with the SP leadership resulting in a series of resignations by the Muslim leaders. Their main refrain had been the guarded silence of the SP chief over alleged atrocities on Muslim leaders like Azam Khan and Mohammad Shahjeel.

  • Party can contest and win third Rajya Sabha seat if leadership asks: Maharashtra BJP chief

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Thursday said his party can field a third candidate for the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections and win that seat too if the central leadership instructed.

    Earlier in the day, the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar filed their nomination papers for the elections to six Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra for which members of the state Assembly will be the electors.

    “If the central leadership instructs us, we will field a third candidate and win that seat as well. Going by the strength in the Assembly, two candidates of BJP can win easily,” Patil told reporters here.

    A candidate will need a quota of 42 votes to win. The BJP has enough votes to win two seats on its own. Ruling alliance partners Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have the votes to get one candidate each elected separately, but together they can get another candidate elected to the Upper House of Parliament.

    Banking on this arithmetic, the Sena has decided to field two candidates in the election. The BJP has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.

    The strength of other parties is as follows: Shiv Sena 55, NCP 53, Congress 44, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi three, Samajwadi Party, AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party two each, MNS, CPM, Peasants and Workers Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Swabhimani Party, Jansurajya Shakti and Krantikari Shetkari Party one each.

    There are 13 Independents, while one seat is vacant.

  • Rajya Sabha polls: BJP likely to win eight upper house seats from UP, SP three

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With the Election Commission of India (ECI) scheduling the 57 biennial elections for 57 seats of the Rajya Sabha on June 10, the focus will be on UP, which will send 11 members to the upper house.

    In fact, UP tops the list of states and sends the maximum number of 31 members to Rajya Sabha.

    With the BJP returning to power in the state with 273 seats and Samajwadi Party and its allies emerging as the largest opposition with  125 seats, there are only two clear claimants to the RS seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party  (BSP) and Congress are set to draw a blank owing to their dismal presence in the state assembly.

    While the BSP has just one MLA from Rasra in Ballia,  Congress has two — from Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh and Pharenda in Maharajganj. Besides, the Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya-led Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik)  has two seats.

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    Of these, 11 members who will bid adieu to the upper house in July include BJP’s Shiv Pratap Shukla, Hariom Yadav, Surendra Singh Nagar, Sanjay Seth, Jay Prakash Nishad and Zafar Islam, SP’s Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Sukhram Singh Yadav and Reoti Raman Singh, BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra and Ashok Siddharth, and Congress’s Kapil Sibal.

    As per the numbers, the BJP could win at least eight of the 11 seats, while Samajwadi Party will comfortably bag at least three.

    Both the ruling BJP and opposition SP would have five floating votes comprising one of the BSP, two each of Jansatta Dal and Congress. However, these five votes would not be able to tilt the polls in favour of one of the two main claimants as each seat would require at least 36.63 votes to sail through.

    This means that the BJP will require at least 298.64 votes to win eight seats. It is sure to win seven and is 26 votes short to win the eighth seat as it has 273 votes. So, the second preference vote will also come into play if the Samajwadi Party, which is sure to win three with 109.91 votes, fields a candidate to stake claim for the fourth. This will lead to voting.

    This means that while the BJP would require 26 votes, SP would have 15.36 additional votes and would need 21.53 votes to bag the fourth seat.

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    However, the victory of SP on fourth seat would depend much on how disgruntled MLAs like Shivpal Yadav, Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan vote.

    According to political observers, as these MLAs have strained ties with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, the possibility of cross-voting cannot be ruled out if the situation arises in RS polls.

    Sources said that of the three seats which SP is sure to win, the party president may choose alliance partner and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhury, former IAS officer Alok Ranjan, who had joined the SP just ahead of 2022 Assembly polls, and the party’s face in Maharashtra Abu Asim Azmi.

    Moreover, in the wake of the recent meeting with senior BJP leaders and cabinet ministers, the moves of SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar would also be closely watched. At the same time, if sources are to be believed, Apna Dal (K) leader Pallavi Patel, who had won the assembly election under the SP symbol by defeating BJP’s Keshav Maurya in his own turf of Sirathu, is also not very happy with the SP leadership.

  • Rajya Sabha polls to 57 seats from 15 states on June 10: Election Commission

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August, the Election Commission said on Thursday.

    Prominent among those retiring are Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal, and BSP’s Satish Chandra Misra.

    Members are retiring between June 21 and August 1.

    While 11 seats are falling vacant in Uttar Pradesh, six members each are retiring from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, five from Bihar and four each from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.

    Three members each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab Jharkhand and Haryana, and one from Uttarakhand are also retiring.

    The notification for the polls will be issued on May 24 and voting will be held on June 10.

    According to established practice, counting will take place an hour after the conclusion of polling.

    Most of the new members who get elected are likely to vote in the President’s election, due sometime in July.

  • RS bypoll: Maharashtra Congress leaders urge Fadnavis to withdraw BJP candidate

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole and state Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat met Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday to urge the opposition BJP to withdraw its candidate and ensure the Congress nominee gets elected unopposed in the next month’s bpoll to a Rajya Sabha seat from the state.

    The by-election was necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MP Rajiv Satav in May this year.

    The Congress, which shares power with the Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra, has fielded Rajni Patil, while the BJP has nominated Sanjay Upadhyay for the bypoll, to be held on October 4,.

    “Thorat and Patole met Fadnavis to persuade the BJP to withdraw its candidate and facilitate unopposed win of the Congress candidate,” a Congress source said.

    The scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on Thursday and the last date of withdrawal is September 27.

    Voting, if neccessary, will be on October 4 and counting of votes will be done the same day.

    The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly forms the electoral college for the poll.

    The BJP has the highest 106 MLAs in the House, followed by Shiv Sena (56), NCP (53), Congress (43), Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (3), Samajwadi Party (2), AIMIM (2), Prahar Janshakti Party (2), MNS (1), CPM (1), Swambhimani Party (1), Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (1), Krantikari Shetkari Party (1), Peasants and Workers Party (1), Jansurajya Shakti Party (1) and Independents 13.

    One seat is lying vacant since the death of Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar in April this year.

  • Rajya Sabha elections to lone seat in Puducherry on October 4

    By Express News Service

    PUDUCHERRY: The elections to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Puducherry will be held on October 4. 

    According to an announcement by the Election Commission of India, the election notification will be issued on September 15, and the last date for nomination is September 22. The scrutiny of nominations will be taken up on September 23 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is September 27. 

    The counting of votes will be conducted on October 4 after the polling from 9 am to 4 pm.

    The election process has to be completed before October 6, when the tenure of the present member N Gokulakrishnan (AIADMK) ends (on October 6).

    The poll panel has directed Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar to depute a senior officer for ensuring the Covid containment measures are followed while making arrangements for conducting the polling.

    The voters’ strength is 30 for the polling. Though Puducherry Legislative Assembly has a strength of 33 members comprising of 30 elected members and three nominated members, only the elected members can vote and those nominated do not have voting rights for the Rajya Sabha polls.

    Among the elected members, 10 are from ruling AINRC and six from its ally BJP, six are Independents, six are from DMK, and two from Indian National Congress. The Secretary of the Legislative Assembly is the returning officer for the poll.

    The sitting member is from AIADMK, an ally of the ruling NDA. The point of interest would be the NDA candidate in the poll in the face of a weak opposition and Independents supporting the ruling alliance. All three NDA allies — AINRC, BJP, and AIADMK — are eyeing the seat and it remains to be seen who is the NDA nominee for the poll.

  • It’s Azad Vs Chakravarty in Congress for Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: With the Election Commission announcing election to one of the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, the Congress is likely to again witness an old versus young tussle with the party having to choose between veteran party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, a member of G23 letter writers, and Praveen Chakravarty, chief of party’s data analytics cell and former party chief Rahul Gandhi’s close aide.

    Discussions have started in the Congress to nominate a party candidate for the lone seat it is likely to get as part of an alliance partner in the state. There are three Rajya Sabha seats vacant in the state and on the state’s demand elections will be held separately.

    Azad, who was the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and retired in Feb 2021, has the support of the DMK as a joint candidate for the upper house from Tamil Nadu but some leaders close to Gandhis have expressed their reservations over his candidature.

    He is among the party leaders who wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 over leadership vacuum and organization elections in the party. The group came under attack from close aides of Gandhis while early this year Congress chief met them and assured them to address their concerns.

    Sources said that Chakravarty, who was the brain behind the Congress’s 2019 campaign for NYAY (minimum income guarantee) scheme, is emerging as the choice of the top leadership though a final decision is yet to be taken.

    “Despite these leaders’ (G23) rebellion against top leadership, the Congress chief has heard them and accommodated them in a few committees. But, sending Azad to Rajya Sabha again looks difficult, especially when veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge was brought to Rajya Sabha and nominated as Leader of Opposition,” said a senior party leader.

    Unlike Kapil Sibal, Azad has not been vocal about organisational changes in the party in the last few months and has been focussing on issues in Jammu and Kashmir.