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Lucknow: On Tuesday, amid the voting for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief whip Manoj Pandey resigned from his post . His resignation comes amid a strong buzz over cross-voting during the polling. Manoj Pandey is an MLA from Unchahar in Raebareli district.
The development comes as a blow to SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Meanwhile, the voting was underway in the state with eight BJP candidates and three from the Samajwadi Party in the fray. Earlier on Monday, eight party MLAs, including Manoj Pandey, did not attend a meeting called by Akhilesh Yadav.
Requesting anonymity, A senior SP leader said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were among the prominent faces who arrived at the state Assembly to cast their votes.
A senior SP leader added, “SP has become ‘Samaptwadi Party’ and all the eight candidates of the BJP will win.” However, Manoj Pandey and seven other MLAs — Mukesh Verma, Maharaji Prajapati, Pooja Pal, Rakesh Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Abhay Singh did not attend the meeting.
Today morning, Voting began in the high-stakes elections for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh with eight BJP candidates and three from the Samajwadi Party in the fray. The results will be announced by the end of the day, Returning Officer Brijbhushan Dubey said earlier.
Rakesh Pratap Singh, an SP MLA, cross-voted for the BJP and chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’. The ruling BJP and the principal opposition SP have the numbers to send seven and three members respectively unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, but with the BJP fielding its eighth candidate, a keen contest is on the cards in one of the seats.
