SP, Cong yet to take action against MLAs cross voting in RS poll

Lucknow, Mar 29 (UNI) Even after a quick decision by the BJP to suspend the party MLAs who cross voted in the Rajya Sabha polls yesterday, other major political parties -- the Samajwadi Party and Congress -- were yet to take any action against the erring MLAs.

Congress today issued a show cause notice to party MLA Shamiul Haq, who had voted for SP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari told UNI here Haq had been issued a show cause notice and the party was awaiting his reply.

''We know that force had been used by the ruling party to garner the support of the lone Congress MLA but a clarification from him was required to get the details of the matter,'' Mr Tiwari added.

Meanwhile, the ruling SP, whose five MLAs cross voted in favour of the BSP candidate, was yet to decide upon action to be taken against the legislators.

BJP state president Keshri Nath Tripathi had yesterday suspended seven party legislators and expelled one MLA for violating party whip in the Rajya Sabha elections.

The BJP legislators who were suspended are: Mr Ganga Baksh Singh (Unnao), Mr Phagu Chauhan (Mau), Mr Amarjit Singh Jansewak (Fatehpur), Mr Ram Prasad Chaudhary (Basti), Mr Chhote Lal Verma (Agra), Mr Badshah Singh (Hamirpur) and Mr Pooran Singh Bundela (Lalitpur).

The party also expelled suspended party legislator from Moradabad, Sandeep Agarwal, for similar reason.

At least 15 MLAs -- nine of the BJP, five of the ruling SP and one of Congress -- cross-voted against respective party whips during the Rajya Sabha polls in UP.

BSP was the main gainer in the RS poll with 19 extra votes going in favour of their candidates, although it boasted of 67 votes of its own.

However, in the Legislative Council poll, which was held through secret ballot, the BSP polled 39 additional votes for their three candidates in the fray for the LC seats leading to their victory in the first round.

The main consolation for the ruling SP was that all its official candidates won the RS and LC polls with the majority votes of the Loktantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD) polling in favour of its candidates.

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

In the RS polls, five of the SP, two each of BSP and BJP and one of the RLD got elected while in the LC polls six SP, three each of BSP and BJP and one of the RLD won the biennial polls yesterday.

UNI MB VS LS DS1618