Process for polls for Rajya Sabha seats in UP

Lucknow, Nov 3 (UNI) All political parties in Uttar Pradesh were keeping their options open for the biennial elections to 10 seats of the Rajya Sabha to be held on November 21.

The election process for the biennial polls started today with the issuance of the notification by the Election Commission.

However no political party have announced yet the names of their candidates.

The last date for filing of the nominations is November 11, scrutiny, the next day and last date of withdrawal of names is November 14.

BJP president Rajnath Singh, BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh were the prominent leaders among those whose RS tenure would end on November 25.

The ruling BSP might announce the names of their candidates tomorrow in a meeting of its legislators while the SP and BJP were yet to discuss the issue.

However, both the BJP sitting members, Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have shown their interest in contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

Presently, the BSP has three seats, of which one Esam Singh has already been disqualified but in the upcoming polls, it can send upto six members to the Upper House of Parliament. With a strength of 216 members, BSP can ensure five seats but with some effort and support from the independents legislators and other MLAs, it can also grab the sixth seat.

In the 401-member strength of the House out of the total of 404, a candidate could win on 37 first preference votes. At present, two seats of the State Assembly--Hardoi and Bhadoi-- were vacant and the nominated one member was not eligible to vote in the RS elections.

The principal opposition party in UP, the Samajwadi party with the strength of 94 MLAs can get elected its two members on first preference 37 votes each, thus leaving 20 spare votes. The Congress with 21 members would need the help of at least 16 spare votes of the Samajwadi party for getting elected its one candidate for the Rajya Sabha elected.

The Rajya Sabha members whose term were expiring are: Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi(both BJP), Amar Singh, Saahid Siddique, Abu Asim Azmi, Uday Pratap Singh( all SP), Esam Singh, Veer Singh, Gandhi Azad(all BSP) and Akhilesh Das( Congress). However, seats of Esam Singh and Akhilesh Das fell vacant earlier.

The strength of the State Assembly is as follows: BSP-216, SP-94, BJP-51, Congress-21, RLD-10, Rastriya Swabhiman Party-1, Independents-8 and Nominated-1.

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