Lucknow: With less than 24 hours remaining for the Rajya Sabha polls, Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati has asked Samajawadi Party for a list of dedicated SP MLAs who will vote for her candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
SP's support will be critical for Mayawati on Friday, when Uttar Pradesh decides on 10 of 31 Rajya Sabha seats. Making sure there are no hiccups, Mayawati asked for the list to put a full stop to any chance of cross-voting.
As part of a quid pro quo in which BSP extended support to SP candidates in the UP Lok Sabha bypolls, Akhilesh Yadav's MLAs will vote for Mayawati's lone candidate in the RS polls on Friday.
A candidate needs the votes of 37 MLAs to go to the Upper House. With 311 MLAs in the UP Assembly, the BJP is assured of eight out of 10 seats. It has fielded a ninth candidate too, for which it has at least 28 votes.
The SP has 47 MLAs, so it is assured of one seat, and it will have 10 MLAs to spare. Nitin Agrawal, son of former SP leader Naresh Agrawal who joined the BJP, however, will vote for the saffron party. The contest will be between the BJP and the BSP for the last remaining seat.
Mayawati’s party has 19 MLAs and with SP’s support, she will get 28 votes. Ajit Singh's party has offered to back her with its one vote to make up for the loss of Nitin Agrawal. She has also been promised by the Congress that its seven MLAs would vote for the BSP candidate, taking the tally to 36.
With independent MLA from Kundla, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, or Raja Bhaiyya as he is more popularly known, also attending Akhilesh’s Yadav dinner on Wednesday, it would be enough to take the BSP candidate home.
But it is all predicated on support from the nine SP MLAs. Any cross-voting could derail the whole thing for the BSP. So Mayawati is leaving nothing to chance. Sources confirmed that the list of trusted nine MLAs has been sent to BSP supremo.
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