Lucknow, 27 February: Akhilesh Yadav’s decision not to allow any Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA to visit Ayodhya earlier this month as part of an all-party delegation led by Speaker, as well as Yadav’s decision to field retired bureaucrat Alok Ranjan and Jaya Bachchan as Rajya Sabha nominees, were two major reasons for SP rebellion during the Rajya Sabha elections.
According to reports, eighty-nine SP MLAs cross-voted, including two Amethi SP MLAs, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Maharaji Devi. This is a setback to the INDI coalition in both Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies.
BJP was secretly working on project of weaning away SP MLAs for about a month now, even while Yadav and Rahul Gandhi were busy giving joint appearances at Nyay Yatra in Agra.
The BJP was aware that several SP MLAs were dissatisfied with Yadav’s decision not to allow any SP member to travel to Ayodhya when the Speaker led a team on February 11.
Even Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs had joined the delegation with BJP MLAs, but no SP MLAs attended since Akhilesh Yadav refused the Speaker’s invitation on the floor of the state legislature. The Speaker, Satish Mahana, later stated that, with the exception of 14 SP MLAs, all other SP MLAs desired to accompany the delegation.
Manoj Pandey, the SP’s top whip and a prominent Brahmin figure, is currently leading the uprising. While the SP and Congress were participating in the Agra Nyay Yatra together, the BJP in Lucknow was quietly gaining support from MLAs such as Pandey.
With the SP’s main whip, Manoj Pandey, resigned on the day of voting, the SP’s whip to its MLAs during Rajya Sabha voting is ineffective, and members are free to vote for whichever side they wish, although action against them in the form of termination or expulsion as an MLA would be impossible. At least eight SP MLAs have rebelled, including two from Amethi and Pandey, who represents Ucchahar in Rae Bareli. Pandey may be’rewarded’ by the BJP with a Lok Sabha ticket from Rae Bareli to face whoever the Gandhi family choose.
The rebellious MLAs are also alleged to be dissatisfied with two of the SP’s three Rajya Sabha nominees.
Jaya Bachchan has been renominated for the fifth time, causing displeasure among SP members. Another option, retired official Alok Ranjan, perplexed observers because his caste base is small in Uttar Pradesh. Many SP members argued that these two nominations were diametrically opposed to Yadav’s PDA (Pichda-Dalit-Alpasankhak) formula for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as Bachchan and Ranjan are neither backward nor minority. Ramji Lal Suman, the party’s third candidate, is a Dalit leader who has the support of many in the SP.
However, it appears like just two of the three SP candidates will make the cut, since the BJP is expected to win eight of the ten Rajya Sabha seats with the backing of two Raja Bhaiya MLAs, nine RLD MLAs, and at least eight SP dissident MLAs. The BJP used phone lines in both Delhi and Lucknow to carry out this coup.
