The Samajwadi Party has decided against fielding a third candidate in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, clearing the way for the BJP to win eight of the 10 seats without a contest.
Because of the possibility of cross-voting, hT reported on October 5 that both sides were closely watching each other’s moves. The BJP, meanwhile, had the numbers to secure seven seats comfortably and was looking for additional votes to win an eighth seat. The decision was taken on Tuesday morning, a day before the deadline for filing nominations, people familiar with the matter said. The SP had been considering fielding a third candidate after the BJP announced eight nominees on Monday.
The move means the 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh are likely to be filled unopposed, with the BJP getting eight seats and the SP retaining the remaining two.
With the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due next year, some MLAs in the BJP-led NDA were understood to be uncomfortable with the prospect of openly voting against their party’s candidate just months before the 2027 polls. A candidate requires 37 first-preference votes, while the SP-led bloc had enough votes to comfortably elect two candidates but would have needed support from outside its camp for a third. The SP had already nominated party veteran Ram Gopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani. Both candidates are expected to win comfortably based on the party’s numbers in the state assembly. The decision to not enter a third candidate was driven largely by the numbers game and concerns over cross-voting. The Rajya Sabha election uses an open ballot system, meaning legislators’ voting choices are visible to their party’s authorised representatives. The possibility of cross-voting had been central to the Rajya Sabha calculations.
