Rajya Sabha elections: Jayant Chaudhary named joint candidate of SP, RLD

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday announced Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary as the joint SP-RLD candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha polls on 11 Uttar Pradesh seats, ending suspense over his nomination. Jayant is likely to file nomination papers on May 30, the day before the deadline.

Dimple Yadav, SP’s former Kannauj MP and party president Akhilesh Yadav’s wife (whose name was also among the SP probables) is now likely to be the SP candidate in the forthcoming Lok Sabha bypolls on the Azamgarh seat vacated by Akhilesh Yadav.

Unlike Akhilesh Yadav or Om Prakash Raibhar (another SP ally), Jayant did not contest this year’s UP assembly polls. Both Akhilesh and Rajbhar had won their seats.

Former Congress leader Kapil Sibal filed his nomination as an SP-backed Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls on Wednesday. Javed Ali Khan filed his nomination an hour later, also as an SP candidate.

“Jayant Chaudhary will be the joint candidate of the SP and RLD,” the Samajwadi Party said in a Hindi tweet from its official Twitter handle.

Retweeting the SP announcement, Jayant Chaudhary wrote in Hindi: “Will move ahead with confidence; in honour of youth, workers, farmers”

With 273 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, the ruling BJP-led NDA will easily be able to get eight members elected to the Upper House of Parliament, while the SP and its allies (RLD and SBSP), with a strength of 125 legislators, will be able to ensure the victory of three candidates.

Uttar Pradesh sends 31 members to the Rajya Sabha. RLD has eight MLAs.

Among the 11 retiring MPs from the state, five are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three from the SP, two from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one from the Congress (Kapil Sibal).

Apart from Sibal, those whose tenures are ending include Satish Chandra Mishra of the BSP and Reoti Raman Singh of the SP.

With 403 elected members in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, a candidate will require at least 34 votes for victory.

The outcome of the state Assembly election held in February-March has changed the equation this time. The Congress has only two MLAs in the assembly, while the BSP has one.

Two senior BSP leaders -- Mishra and Ashok Siddharth -- will retire from the Upper House in July, after which the party will have only one member, Ramji Gautam, in the Rajya Sabha.

The five retiring Rajya Sabha MPs of the BJP are Zafar Islam, Shiv Pratap Shukla, Sanjay Seth, Surendra Nagar and Jai Prakash Nishad.

The SP is not repeating any of its three RS members who are retiring. SP leaders completing their terms include former Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council chairman Sukhram Singh Yadav, whose son Mohit has joined the BJP. Besides Yadav, the tenure of Reoti Raman Singh and Vishambhar Prasad Nishad will also end in July.

Voting will be held on June 10 and the results will be declared the same day.