The finalisation of candidates for the three Rajya Sabha seats by the Samajwadi Party (SP) is in the final stage and the party boss and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav may declare the names in a coming couple of days, sources privy to the development informed The Daily Guardian Review. The party might also send the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary from its own quota to send a message in the state. Names of Alok Ranjan, a former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary, Javid Ali Khan, a former parliamentarian, and Saleem Sherwani are also doing the rounds in the power corridors of Lucknow as probable contenders.
Talking to The Daily Guardian Review, a senior party leader said, “one candidate from the Muslim community will go and Javid Ali Khan and Saleem Sherwani are top contenders, Alok Ranjan is also a probable candidate as he was instrumental in the designing of our election manifesto, the party might also thing of sending RLD chief to deliver a message”.
Eleven Rajya Sabha seats are getting vacant in June from the politically most significant state of the country. As per the present strength in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can easily send eight members to the upper house while the SP can send three members. The state of Uttar Pradesh had 31 members in the Rajya Sabha. The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. In UP one candidate needs 34 votes to get elected. Presently the National Democratic Alliance has 273 members while the SP led alliance has 125 seats in the legislative assembly.
Among the 11 members from Uttar Pradesh who are retiring five are from the saffron party, two from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), three from the SP and one from the Indian National Congress (INC).