Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha Election: BJP wins 8, one extra out of cross-voting while Samajwadi Party bags 2

In what may appear as a major setback for Akhilesh Yadav ahead of Lok Sabha elections, 7 Samajwadi Party MLAs on Tuesday cross-voted for BJP along with one MLA of SBSP and one of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, helping the BJP win one extra Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. While BJP won 8 out of 10, the Samajwadi Party won 2 Rajya Sabha seats.

With the current strength in the UP assembly, BJP was poised to comfortably win seven out of ten seats but the saffron party fielded an eighth candidate forcing a contest in one seat.

Upbeat with the victory, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya exuded confidence and said: “We always knew BJP will win the eighth seat as well”.

Interestingly eight SP MLAs had skipped a meeting called by Akhilesh Yadav on Monday night and hours before the election SP MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey resigned from the post of party chief whip making it abundantly clear about the possibilities of cross-voting.

Akhilesh Yadav however claimed that putting a third candidate was a test of loyalty and compassion. “Our third seat was actually a test to identify true companions”, Akhilesh Yadav posted on ‘X’.​