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UP legislators turn into horses in run-up to RS poll

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Never before has horse-trading of such an immense scale been witnessed in a Rajya Sabha election, as is evident in the run-up to the current biennial poll for 11 seats from Uttar Pradesh. The elections are due on March 29.

Every party in the fray had let loose its respective poll managers to fulfil the demands of MLAs, who are openly up for sale and who comprise the electoral college. Unconfirmed reports quote each MLA's price in the range of Rs 15 lakh plus a Tata Sumo.

Sure enough, such demands have left every party vulnerable, and the fear of cross-voting looms large over every one of them. Even the ruling BJP legislators did not hesitate to display their chagrin over the goings-on at a meeting of the BJP state legislature party convened by Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta on Friday.

Their grouse was straight and simple: "What are we getting, after all -- nothing".

However, the election poses an uphill task in particular for the BJP's key ally, the Loktantrik Congress Party, which stands sharply divided over the question of supporting the official party nominee Rajiv Shukla, the well known media personality.

The Congress and the Lok Dal too are struggling hard to make their presence felt in the absence of sufficient numerical strength or outside support to see their own candidates through.

Only the BJP, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party enjoy the required strength to see their nominees through. Still, the SP's predicament arises from the fact that it was also keen to ensure the victory of Rajiv Shukla without jeopardising the interest of its own three nominees.

The SP's poll manager, the inimitable Amar Singh, who has been camping in Lucknow for the last 10 days, had left no stone unturned to woo members of different parties, including the disgruntled ones belonging to his own party. Seasoned political observers were of the view that Singh's obvious gameplan was to first ensure the victory of their own three candidates through the party's first preference votes. That would enable SP legislators to cast their second preference votes for the LCP nominee Rajiv Shukla.

Shukla's problem arises largely on account of the current infighting between LCP chief Naresh Agarwal and a section of his party colleagues led by Amar Mani Tripathi. "They may not have anything against Rajiv Shukla, but their idea is to run down Naresh Agarwal," claimed a disgruntled LCP leader, who did not also hesitate to confess, "The rest of us have decided to support M M Agarwal, the official nominee of another BJP ally the Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party."

The LCP has 20 members in the legislative assembly while the JBSP's strength stands at 19. However, despite deep factionalism in the JBSP camp, each of its 19 members had decided to close ranks over the question of extending support to Agarwal, an affluent businessman running multiple organisations in Kanpur and Noida.

For Agarwal, it has become a prestige issue and he is willing to go to any lengths to see himself through in the race. Thus, it's not surprising to find several independents rallying behind him, including the infamous Raghuraj Pratap Singh, commonly known as Raja Bhaiya who was also a cabinet minister.

Despite the handicap of a divided sponsor - the LCP -- Rajiv Shukla still remained the hot favourite of several MLAs cutting across party lines. Just as the SP was out to dole out their second preference votes in his favour, so were a couple of Congress members who were unhappy over the party chief Sonia Gandhi's choice of the otherwise unknown Inder Khosla as the party's official nominee.

Former UP chief minister and ousted BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who claimed the support of four BJP MLAs had already declared his decision to throw his weight behind the journalist.

In the UP assembly, the BJP has a strength of 175; the SP 105; the BSP 50; the LCP 20; the JBSP 19; the Congress 15; the CPI-M 4; the Janata Dal 4; the Janata Dal (Raja Ram) 4; the Samata Party 2; the CPI 1; the Samajwadi Janata Party 1; Apna Dal 1; Independents 12; unattached members 3.

With as many as 15 candidates (one having retired) in the fray for 11 Rajya Sabha seats, the contest is surely going to be an interesting one. Political analysts see an assuredly easy passage for five candidates belonging to the BJP , three of the SP and one of the BSP. However, no one denies that the fate of the remaining six contestants for the two remaining seats, would depend largely on their skills in horse-trading.

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