BJP in a soup in Vidhan parishad election in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Whatever the party may say, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to lose one of its candidates for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council election which is underway. The party has 41 members and put up two candidates for this election when 29 first preference votes are required to win the seat.

Of the four contestants, the BJP, the Samajwadi Party(SP), the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), it is only the congress which has the required number for its candidate to go to the state Vidhan Sabha.

The party has fielded one candidate while the SP and the BSP have nominated eight and three candidates ,respectively. In all there are 14 candidates for 13 seats which will fall vacant next month.

On the basis of its strength in the state assembly to get all its candidates elected the SP needs support of 232 members. Thus the party requires additional eight supporters. With 80 members the BSP is short of seven votes and the BJP 12.

The party has selected Bhupendra Singh and Dayashankar. Party sources say that members have been told to treat Singh as the first choice. In that case Dayashankar will have to manage additional 12 support. The situation may be different if some small parties and independents come to his rescue.

The SP on the other hand is better placed because the party has been assured support by the 8-member Rashtriya Lok Dal. If there is no cross-voting by members of this party the SP has nothing to worry about.

The voting which is on will come to an end on Friday afternoon and the result is expected to be announced by evening.