LUCKNOW The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the biennial election to 10 Rajya Sabha and 11 Legislative Council seats in Uttar Pradesh, setting the stage for another show of strength between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) before the 2027 assembly elections. The BJP is expected to retain eight of the 10 seats and the Samajwadi Party is likely to gain one.
The tenure of BSP’s lone member Ramji Gautam ends on November 25 along with eight members of the BJP and one from the SP. To demoralise the SP ranks before the 2027 assembly polls, the BJP may adopt the same strategy in the upcoming Rajya Sabha election. The voting will take place October 16, from 9 am to 4 pm. Counting of votes will begin at 5 pm on the same day. The election process will be completed by October 19, he added. The ECI also announced the schedule for the biennial election to 11 legislative council seats.
In the biennial election held in November 2020, BSP national coordinator Ramji Gautam was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, though the BSP had merely 15 MLAs due to the support of the BJP. In the Rajya Sabha election held in February 2024, the BJP stunned the SP by winning eight seats due to cross-voting by SP MLAs in favour of the BJP candidate. The election to the Rajya Sabha will also mark the end of the representation of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the Upper House of the Parliament. The BSP has no representation in the UP Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council and in the Lok Sabha. The lone BSP member in the legislative assembly Uma Shankar Singh died in August. The nomination of an SP-backed independent candidate was rejected. This time, the fear of cross-voting looms large in the BJP camp as well. There is unease among some BJP MLAs who fear they might be denied a ticket in the upcoming assembly polls. So, they might shift their allegiance to the SP for ticket. The eight BJP Rajya Sabha members whose term expires in November include Brij Lal, Geeta Shakya, Hardeep Singh Puri, Seema Dwivedi, Neeraj Shekhar, Arun Singh, BL Verma and Dinesh Sharma, who has already resigned after being appointed lieutenant governor of Andaman and Nicobar. The lone SP member is party secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav.
The BJP will work to increase its tally in the Rajya Sabha to boost the morale of party workers before the assembly polls.
