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Journalism of Courage
Rajya Sabha polls: Mock voting, dinners and back-channel dialogue, a complaint to the Election Commission (EC), and legislators sequestered in a hotel. The stage is set for a high-octane Rajya Sabha election battle in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday.
There are 10 Upper House vacancies from UP, of which the BJP has the numbers to win seven unopposed and the Samajwadi Party (SP) can win three. But with the BJP fielding businessman-turned-politician Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate, a contest is on the cards for one of the seats. A former SP leader, Seth joined the BJP in 2019.
In Karnataka, there are four Rajya Sabha seats and five candidates in the fray. The candidature of Janata Dal (Secular) leader and real estate baron D Kupendra Reddy has made a contest inevitable for the fourth seat. As the numbers stand now, the Congress is assured of a win in three seats and the BJP is set to win one.
In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress has the numbers to win the one Rajya Sabha seat up for grabs but there is apparent resentment among some in the Congress about the candidature of senior party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The BJP has fielded former Congress leader Harsh Mahajan, hoping to cash in on any division within the Congress.
In UP, there are 10 seats and 11 candidates. The BJP has fielded former Union Minister R P N Singh, party general secretary Amarpal Maurya, former minister Sangeeta Balwant, spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh, former Agra mayor Naveen Jain, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, and Seth. The SP, meanwhile, has fielded actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan, former state chief secretary Alok Ranjan, and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
The UP Assembly has 403 MLAs but the voting strength on Tuesday will be 399 as four seats are vacant. So, each candidate requires 37 first-preference votes. The BJP has 252 MLAs and its NDA allies account for 34 MLAs — 13 from the Apna Dal (S), nine from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), six each from the NISHAD Party and the Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP). Strongman Raghuraj Pratap Singh, popularly known as “Raja Bhaiya”, who leads the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik — and is one of the two MLAs of the party — is backing the BJP.
If the BJP manages to get all of these 36 votes, it will have 288 in its bag but will fall short by eight votes to get its eighth candidate elected. The SP has 108 MLAs and its ally Congress has two legislators. The party needs 111 votes to get its three candidates elected but, compounding its problem, ally and Apna Dal (K) leader Pallavi Patel, who won in 2022 on the SP symbol, has said she won’t vote for either Jaya Bachchan or Alok Ranjan.
On Monday, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath convened a meeting of the NDA MLAs and partners in Lucknow that was attended by Raja Bhaiya and RLD MLAs. Adityanath also hosted them for dinner at his official residence. While sources said SP president Akhilesh Yadav contacted Raja Bhaiya to seek his support, the strongman reiterated he would vote for the BJP.
There are four Rajya Sabha seats from the southern state and five candidates. Those in the fray are former Union Minister Ajay Maken, and current Rajya Sabha MPs Syed Nasir Hussain and G C Chandrashekar of the Congress; former MLC Narayansa Bhandage of the BJP; and Kupendra Reddy.
To win, each candidate requires 45 first-preference votes in the 224-MLA Assembly. The Congress has 134 MLAs at present — Shorapur MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik died of a heart attack on Sunday — and has claimed the support of Independent legislators Latha Mallikarjun and K Puttaswamy Gowda, and Darshan Puttannaiah of the Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha. Apart from them, Janardhan Reddy of the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha, who met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar on Monday, is also likely to back the Congress, according to sources in the party.
The BJP with 66 MLAs is in a position to get Bhandage, its main candidate, elected. Even with the BJP’s spare votes and its 19 MLAs, the JD(S) will need five more votes to send Kupendra Reddy to the Rajya Sabha.
On Monday, Congress MLAs were moved to a private hotel in Bengaluru, where the party also held a legislature party meeting and a round of mock voting. Asked if the Congress was apprehensive about cross-voting, Shivakumar said it would not happen. State Congress working president Saleem Ahmed told The Indian Express that the MLAs would “come directly to the polling station in the morning”.
A candidate needs 35 votes in the 68-member Himachal Assembly to be elected to the Upper House of Parliament. The Congress has 40 MLAs and is also counting on the support of Independent MLAs Ashish Sharma, K L Thakur, and Hoshyar Singh. The BJP has 25 MLAs in the House.
As things stand, the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi who is facing the BJP’s Harsh Mahajan, a former Congress leader, should sail through comfortably. But a section of the party, including some of CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s detractors, is said to be unhappy with the candidature of Singhvi who is not from the state.
Mahajan on Monday complained to the EC about the Congress’s whip to its legislators to vote for Singhvi, saying that in the Rajya Sabha polls MLAs “retain their freedom to vote for a candidate of their choice”. Singhvi told The Indian Express he was “supremely confident of winning, but, equally, neither complacent nor presumptuous”.
“By putting up a candidate, the BJP, which has just 25 MLAs in a House of 68, can only send a shameful message of admitting that it wants to employ its dirty tricks department. That they want to win the elections through hook or crook, more by crook and less by hook, is the special chaal, charitra and chehera of BJP 2.0,” he said. On Monday night, Singhvi hosted Congress MLAs for dinner at a hotel in Shimla.
Asked about dissent in Congress ranks, state minister Vikramaditya Singh told The Indian Express, “Everything will be fine. In every government, there is some bickering or resentment. But I don’t think it will have a bearing on elections because the person who is contesting is a man of repute and he should not be held to ransom over some bickering.”
