The withdrawal comes a day after BJP suffered a defeat in the Lok Sabha byelections in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.
Two BJP nominees withdrew from the race to Rajya Sabha from the state Thursday, bringing the total number of party candidates to nine. While the move does come as a relief to SP and BSP, the race is still tight. The withdrawal comes a day after the party suffered a defeat in the Lok Sabha byelections in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.
State party general secretaries Vidyasagar Sonkar and Salil Vishnoi, who were the 10th and 11th party candidates, withdrew on the last date for withdrawal. Some see it as attempts to make up for comments from outgoing RS MP Naresh Agrawal who had recently quit the SP for BJP. He had made certain remarks against SP nominee Jaya Bachchan which upset the BJP leadership. On its own, the BJP, with 324 MLAs, can elect at least eight to the Upper House; a candidate requires 37 votes to be elected. There are 10 seats up for grabs from the state. The remaining two will likely be split between SP and BSP.
SP has 47 MLAs. They would have had 10 votes to spare for BSP’s Bhimrao Ambedkar if it hadn’t been for the uncertainty over who Nitin Agrawal, Naresh Agrawal’s son, would vote for. Naresh had said Nitin would vote for BJP candidate.
The BSP, with just 19 MLAs will require the seven from Congress and the lone MLAs from RLD and NISHAD parties. “The BJP loss in the bypolls has changed a lot of things. Some MLAs of other parties, who considered BJP as the only rising power have been corrected. So,instead of facing another humiliating defeat, BJP withdrew its candidates,” said Congress leader, Ajay Kumar Lallu.
A BJP leader, however, said, “It was already decided that we would field nine. The two were fielded just as a precaution if some candidate’s papers were rejected during scrutiny.”