Counting of votes in the keenly-watched Rajya Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh began after a two-hour delay today as the opposition Samajwadi Party and BSP lodged a complaint with the Election Commission.
Joint Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh R C Rai said the counting had begun.
Earlier, the opposition parties moved the poll panel against two MLAs who are believed to have cross-voted.
"We have given a written complaint to the Election Commission that our MLA Anil Singh did not show his vote to the election agent of the party before casting it and we are awaiting a reply from the EC in this regard," Deputy leader of the BSP in the state Assembly Uma Shankar Singh said.
The Samajwadi Party also lodged a similar complaint with regard to MLA Nitin Agarwal, who had switched sides after his father quit the party and joined the BJP recently.
"Nitin Agarwal cast his vote without showing it to the election agent and we have demanded the cancellation of his vote," SP MLC Sunil Singh Sajan said.
"We have demanded the cancellation of these votes," Sajan said.
With one BSP MLA believed to have cross-voted and two others in jail being denied permission to vote in the Rajya Sabha polls, the Opposition faced a challenge of numbers to ensure victory for their second candidate.
While the ruling BJP is assured of eight of 10 Rajya Sabha seats for which voting was underway today, the Samajwadi Party has fielded Jaya Bachchan and the BSP Bhimrao Ambedkar for the remaining two seats.
As the parties totted up the numbers, BSP MLA Anil Singh indicated that he had cross-voted in favour of the BJP, saying "I am with Maharaj-ji", a reference to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The Unnao MLA's vote could be crucial as it gives the BJP the edge in getting a ninth Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.
The Allahabad High Court has denied permission to BSP's Mukhtar Ansari, currently lodged in Banda jail, to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. And a court in Firozabad has rejected a petition by SP MLA Hariom Yadav, who is in Firozabad jail.
The Opposition is now banking heavily on the votes of two Independents -- Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and his close associate and MLA Vinod Saroj.
Both appeared set to vote for SP's Jaya Bachchan, prompting party chief Akhilesh Yadav to thank Raja Bhaiya and post a picture with him on Twitter.
Raja Bhaiya, who has had a rocky relationship with BSP chief Mayawati, had tweeted this morning that he was with "Akhilesh ji" and specified that it did not mean that he was with the BSP.
The BSP did not take an adverse view of Raja Bhaiya's comment. "... had he had any reservations he would have said openly," said Uma Shankar Singh.
He added that he could not be sure that Anil Singh had voted for the BSP candidate.
Adding a tinge of surprise, Raja Bhaiya later met the chief minister, leaving political analysts wondering as to why he met Yogi Adityanath.
"I discussed issues pertaining to my constituency (Kunda). Every MLA has the right to discussed matters related to his or her constituency with the chief minister," he said.
Keeping it ambiguous, Anil Singh said that he had cast his vote and showed it to BSP agent Lalji Verma and the rest could be known from him.
"I have cast my vote after showing it to Lalji Verma and he will tell you the details...I am with Maharaj-ji (Adityanath)," he said after voting at the Tilak Hall in the Assembly complex.
According to Uma Shankar, 17 MLAs of the total 19 BSP legislators had cast their votes by midday and shown them to Verma.
The BSP leader exuded confidence that all the nine surplus MLAs of the Samajwadi Party as well as seven of the Congress and one of the RLD have voted in favour of his party candidate.
"All the seven Congress MLAs went together to vote, while the SP has given us a list of their loyal MLAs," Uma Shankar said.
Independent MLA Aman Mani Tripathi also said he was with 'Maharaj ji' and would vote for the BJP.
There are 11 candidates for 10 Rajya Sabha seats and 37 first preference votes are required for victory in each seat.
Since the BJP and its allies have 324 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the saffron party can easily bag eight of the 10 seats and will still be left with 28 surplus votes as the four-MLA strong Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) has decided to go with the ruling party.
"There can be some contest on the ninth seat," a senior UP BJP leader said.
BJP candidates in the fray from Uttar Pradesh are Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav and G V L Narasimha Rao. This ninth candidate is Anil Kumar Agarwal, a businessman.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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