Close on the heels of the humiliating defeat of the BJP in recent Lok Sabha by polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur; fresh troubles are brewing for the BJP for the biennial poll of 10 Rajya Sabha seats. Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Apna Dal are sulking as both the parties were not consulted by the BJP while deciding all the nine candidates for the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP on its strength it can win only eight seats and for the ninth it would need the first preference votes of its two allies. SBSP, which has four MLAs and Apna Dal Nine MLAs in the 403-member UP Assembly, holds key to the fate the ninth BJP candidate.
“We are clueless as to whom we are expected to vote for. .How can I tell you that whether we will be voting for the BJP or any other party in the Rajya Sabha elections? We are yet to take a final stand on this,” SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said here on Sunday’’, Rajbhar added `` my party was not consulted by the BJP before announcing the candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls’’.
“We are still in alliance with the BJP, but did they ever consult us before finalising their candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections and Lok Sabha by polls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur. They fielded their candidates in the urban local body’s polls, but did they appropriately discharge the alliance dharma. In the Lok Sabha by poll did they ever ask the alliance partners what could be their possible roles?” he rued.
The SBSP chief also said, “Unless someone from the BJP asks us, how will talks take place? Should I on my own go and say that I will vote for you. Finalising the candidate is their job, not ours. But, as a courtesy, they should ask at least once as to whether we will join them in campaigning. Not a single leader asked us. In this scenario, how can I tell you whether we will be voting for the BJP or any other party in the Rajya Sabha elections. We are yet to take a final call.”
Asked whether his party will cross-vote?, Rajbhar, who is also a cabinet minister in the Adityanath government said, “We are in the alliance, and if they do not discharge the alliance dharma, should we go to them and say that please take our vote?”
He claimed his party could have influenced at least 30,000 votes in the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by polls and the results could have been different. “But, it seems we have no utility for the BJP. Similarly, in Phulpur, we were not invited even once to campaign for the BJP candidate,” he said.
A sulking Rajbhar also said, “You have kept us in the alliance... either I don’t know how to discharge the alliance dharma or I am saying something wrong. The nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections have been done. But, is it not the duty of the BJP to consult us and deliberate on the election.” The president of the SBSP observed that the Dalits and backwards classes have been “ignored”, and this trend is continuing.
``The BJP is in the habit of ignoring the allies and they have paid heavy price for this habit in the form of losing the two by polls for Lok Sabha in Gorakhpur and Phulpur. The BJP did not consult the leaders of neither of the SBSP nor from Apna Dal for the Lok Sabha by polls. Our voters in Gorakhpur were inclined to vote for the BJP candidate but they drifted away as there was no direction from our party leadership’’, said Arun Rajbhar, national general secretary of the SBSP.
However, seeking to downplay SBSP’s annoyance, state BJP spokesperson Manish Shuka said, “All our alliance partners are with the BJP. Both the Apna Dal and SBSP are with the BJP. I am confident that they will vote for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections. The alliance is in best of health and all the partners are together.” Shukla also exuded confidence that all the BJP candidates will win the Rajya Sabha elections.
The BJP and its allies currently have 324 seats in the Assembly after the death of its Noorpur (Bijnor) MLA in a road accident recently and to secure a straight win in this Rajya Sabha election, a candidate needs 37 first preference votes. Thus, arithmetically, the BJP can easily win eight of the 10 seats and be left with 28 surplus votes. If the SBSP decides not to go with the BJP, even then the eight candidates of the BJP will smoothly sail through, and the party will be left with 24 surplus first preference votes.
“There can be some contest on the ninth seat,” a senior UP BJP leader said. With 19 MLAs, the BSP is short of 18 first preference votes, and with Naresh Agarwal’s son Nitin, who is still an SP MLA, likely to cross-vote for the BJP, the task will become difficult for Mayawati’s candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar.