Shah pulls off stunning RS poll coup against Maya-Akhilesh

Lucknow/New Delhi: In a photo-finish to the keenly watched Rajya Sabha (RS) elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP on Friday took sweet revenge on the Opposition by ensuring victory of all its nine candidates, days after it lost two crucial seats in the Lok Sabha bypolls in the state. The remaining seat went to the Samajwadi Party in the polls marred by cross-voting from both sides, which led to the defeat of the BSP candidate in the prestigeous battle of ballots, touted as a test for the new found bonhomie between the parties headed by Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati.

Besides BJP's prominent winner Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the others who made it to the Upper House of Parliament from the party are Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao and ninth candidate Anil Kumar Agarwal, who pulled off a surprise win with the help of second preference votes. Other candidates, including SP's actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan won with the help of first preference votes. Counting of votes in the Rajya Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh began after a two-hour delay as the Opposition Samajwadi Party and BSP lodged a complaint with the Election Commission (EC).

The Opposition parties moved the poll panel against two MLAs who are believed to have cross-voted. "We have given a written complaint to the Election Commission that our MLA Anil Singh did not show his vote to the election agent of the party before casting it and we are awaiting a reply from the EC in this regard," Deputy leader of the BSP in the state Assembly Uma Shankar Singh said.

The Samajwadi Party also lodged a similar complaint with regard to MLA Nitin Agarwal, who had switched sides after his father quit the party and joined the BJP recently. "Nitin Agarwal cast his vote without showing it to the election agent and we have demanded the cancellation of his vote," SP MLC Sunil Singh Sajan said.

For the 59 Rajya Sabha seats to be filled, 33 candidates from 10 states were declared elected unopposed on March 15 with the BJP accounting for 16 of them. However, results for two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand were yet to be officially declared. Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was backed by ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, and BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar (from Karnataka) were among the prominent winners.

Backed by ruling CPI(M)-led LDF, M P Veerendra Kumar, the President of the Kerala unit of Janata Dal (U) Sharad Yadav faction, was elected from Kerala defeating his Congress rival, in a bypoll after he resigned from Rajya Sabha as a mark of protest following JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joining hands with BJP-led NDA.

In West Bengal, Singhvi and four Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates — Nadimul Haque, Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas and Santunu Sen — won the Rajya Sabha election. The TMC supported Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha poll who contested as the fifth candidate as the Congress did not have the strength in the Assembly to get its candidate elected. Singhvi secured 47 votes, he said.