BJP rebels spoil Rajya Sabha party, field arms dealer Nanda

The BJP is worried about the biennial elections, where a candidate needs only 37 first-preference votes to get a six-year term in the Rajya Sabha. Since all 10 proposers and seconders of Nanda’s happen to be BJP rebels, the party is obviously nervous.

It does have 14 additional votes, but it cannot ignore the fact that the number of disgruntled MLAs in the party is much larger than what is publicly known.

Before the afternoon’s dramatic events, 10 party candidates had already filed nominations for the 10 seats in the biennial elections while industrialist Lalit Suri was the consensus candidate (backed by BJP, BSP, SP, Rashtriya Kranti Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal) for the by-election.

Nanda will now be challenging Suri in the by-poll and heavyweights like Amar Singh, Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in the biennial election.

The rebels said they’d taken this decision because the Governor had refused their plea to convene an assembly session. ‘‘The voting pattern on November 18 will give written proof of whether the government is in a majority’’, said rebel leader Ganga Bhakt Singh.

Their plans in disarray, top BJP leaders — including Kushabhau Thakre, Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar and Lalji Tandon — went into a huddle in Lucknow.

Unsure of what might follow, a senior party leader in Delhi said: ‘‘The current situation is full of possibilities. Anything can happen.’’

The first priority of the BJP-BSP alliance, he said, was to get Nanda out of the way. His elimination would mean an unopposed election of 10 people to the Upper House through biennial polls and one through a by-election. Nanda is a candidate in both.

To begin with, sources said, Nanda’s nomination papers may be rejected after scrutiny tomorrow. If he survives that, he may be persuaded to pull out of the contest. If nothing works, Nanda may be the victim of a police raid, preferably when closetted with some BJP rebels. Two leaders, Naresh Agrawal and Amar Mani Tripathi, who are reportedly advising Nanda may also face rough weather.

Nanda’s rivals may seek a rejection of his nomination papers on various grounds. It can be due to his possible failure to append an original voters’ list or an affidavit and its contents with regard to any criminal cases against him. Even the authenticity of the signatures of the MLAs who proposed or seconded his candidature can be questioned.

Katiyar claimed at Lucknow that the names of some BJP MLAs mentioned in the nomination papers are fake and the party would raise an objection before the returning officer.

The BJP is working out a separate strategy for those who may testify that their signatures are genuine. While central party general secretary Arun Jaitley said here that those who signed the nomination papers of Nanda may be considered for expulsion, Katiyar said that the party was mooting the possibility of approaching Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi with a demand for their disqualification under the Anti-Defection Act.