BSP emerges major gainer in RS, LC polls in UP

Lucknow, Mar 28 (UNI) The opposition BSP was the major gainer in the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections in Uttar Pradesh today with several rival parties' legislators cross voting in favour of its candidates.

The party polled 19 extra votes in favour of its RS nominees, although it boasted of 67 votes of its own. Two of its candidates were elected to the Upper House of Parliament after counting today.

Polled 39 additional votes for their three candidates in fray for the LC seats leading to their victory in the first round.

However, the main consolation for the ruling Samajwadi Party was that all its official candidates won the RS and LC elections with the majority votes of the Loktrantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD) polling in favour of the SP candidates.

The party managed the entry of all its five candidates to the RS in the biennial elections from UP, while BJP stalwarts Kalraj Mishra and Vinay Katiyar were re-elected.

At least 15 MLAs -- nine of the BJP, five of the ruling Samajwadi Party and one of Congress -- crossed voted against their party whip according to agents manning the election.

Jagran group CMD and CEO of Channel 7 Mahendra Mohan Gupta, traders leader Banwari Lal Kanchal and former UP Advocate General Virendra Bhatia (all SP) made their maiden entry into the RS.

Veteran SP leader Janeshwar Mishra was also re-elected.

The election saw as many as 15 members indulging in cross voting, BSP being the gainer with its candidates managing maximum votes. SP supported Maulana Mahmood Madni (RLD) also got the nod.

Others to romp home were Veerpal Singh Yadav (SP), Monkhad Ali and Balihari (BSP).

Out of 13 candidates in fray, the Congress candidate Azad Kumar Kardam, Satish Chandra (BSP) and Industrialist Sudhanshu Mittal (Indpendent), were eliminated as they could not muster a required minimum of 18 first preference votes.

The counting for the RS was delayed by one-and-half-hours following complaints of rigging against the ruling SP by Congress and BJP.

The election to the LC concluded with 13 candidates -- six from SP, three each from7 BSP, BJP and one from RLD -- getting elected to the upper house.

The elected candidates include Naresh Chandra Uttam, Khawaja Halim, Kashinath, Rakesh Singh Rana, Ramsharan Das, Dayaram Prajapati (all SP), Harpal Singh Saini (RLD), Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Ashok Dhawan, Ramnaresh Rawat (all BJP), Babu Singh Kushawaha, Jugal Kishore and Sunil Kumar (all BSP).

Matiur Rahman from Congress was the only candidate to be eliminated in the last round against Ashok Dhawan of the BJP.

Talking to newspersons later, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed it was a victory of the policies and programmes of his government.

''The negative political approach of the opposition stands defeated with our victory,'' he added.

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