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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal's joint nominee, Munna Singh, on Monday emerged victorious in the crucial by-election for the lone Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seat.
The poll had assumed significance in the wake of the political crisis buffeting the Mayawati-led government.
A member of the RLD, Munna Singh defeated his sole rival Yashwant Singh, fielded by the ruling coalition rebels and supported by the Samajwadi Party and other key opposition groups, by a close margin of just 11 votes.
Of the 379 votes that were cast during the day-long polling, Munna Singh scored a tally of 194 as against Yashwant Singh's 183. Two votes were declared 'invalid'.
The Congress party, which abstained from voting, succeeded in proving that despite its low numerical strength of just 23 in the 403-member state assembly [whose members alone were entitled to vote in this election], it could still play a decisive role in a political process.
"We had decided to keep away from both sides that are equally undeserving; on one side was a BJP-supported candidate and on the other a SP-sponsored nominee who did not even care to consult us at the time of filing his nomination," observed Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari.
Samajwadi Party, the BJP rebels, and the dissident independents, however, contended that the result has proved their claim that the Mayawati government has been reduced to a minority.
"We have been trying to impress upon Governor Vishnukant Shastri that the Mayawati government had been reduced to a minority, but our repeated demand for a floor test by convening a special session of the state assembly, has fallen on deaf ears," remarked state Samajwadi Party chief Ram Saran Das. "Now this Vidhan Parishad by-election has proved our point, as the ruling coalition has failed to get more than 194 votes in the 403-member house, where a simple majority would mean a score of 202."
Yashwant Singh too claimed, "I never contested this election for the sake of becoming a member of the Upper House of the legislature. My idea was to establish that the Mayawati government was reduced to a minority after the independents and the BJP rebels had revolted."
"The voting tally has now proved me right and now it is for the President of India to intervene and direct the governor to convene a special session of the house and direct Mayawati to seek a trust vote," he added.
BJP Legislature Party leader and senior minister Lalji Tandon, while admitting cross-voting, however, denied that the outcome would have any bearing on the fate of the government. "The government still enjoys majority and we have proved it by our victory in this bypoll," he said.
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