BJP’s surprise RS pick in UP, Sanjay Seth: Realty tycoon, ex-aide of Mulayam, Akhilesh

However, by nominating Seth as its eighth candidate, the BJP has upped the ante and forced an election, even though it falls short of eight votes to push his nomination through. This opens up the possibility of cross-voting.

What makes the face-off interesting besides putting the SP on the back foot is Seth’s past relations with the SP led by Akhilesh Yadav. Seth had served as the SP MP in the Upper House between 2016 and 2019.

He resigned from the SP on August 6, 2019, three months before his Rajya Sabha tenure ended, and went on to join the BJP days later.

Old SP connection

Seth is also considered one of the leading real-estate developers in Lucknow. He set up his company, SAS Hotels and Properties Private Limited, in 1985. It was later renamed the Shalimar Corporation.

During the tenure of the Mayawati-led BSP government between 2007-12, Seth’s company took on major projects such as the Dr BR Ambedkar Gomti Vihar Park (Part-1 and Part- 2), a multi-level parking space in Hazratganj and another parking lot in Vridawan colony near the Rae Bareli Road. The company’s project, the Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre (JPNIC) in Lucknow, has been put on halt for the last seven years due to lack of funds.

Seth has been active politically alongside his business career, maintaining strong ties with the SP first family. Seth had shared close ties with SP founder late Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Prateek Yadav, who is the step-brother of Akhilesh. An SP leader said Seth had even designed and developed the houses for Mulayam and Akhilesh.

In 2015, Seth was even nominated by the SP as an MLC candidate. But the then UP Governor Ram Naik had rejected Seth’s name along with four others, “as not being worthy of nomination”. Sending back Seth’s file, the Governor had sought details about an IT department search on the Shalimar company’s offices. “It is a normal search procedure for any company,” Seth had then said.

The SP first family was dealing with internal strife during that period. This had reached a flashpoint on December 28, 2016, when Akhilesh put out his own list of 235 candidates for the 2017 Assembly polls, including many who did not figure in the list issued by Mulayam a day earlier.

The following day, Mulayam expelled Akhilesh from the party for six years on charges of “gross indiscipline”. Three days later, the SP national executive “unanimously” elected Akhilesh as the party’s national president.

Amidst this churn in the SP, Seth became closer to Akhilesh and was even rewarded for his loyalty. He became the party’s national treasurer after Akhilesh took over as the party chief.

Seth was also said to have played a role in bringing the BSP and the SP together ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the two parties contested the polls together as part of a Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in UP.