Uttar Pradesh: BSP banks on other parties to win Upper House seat

LUCKNOW: BSP’s Ramji Gautam, the party’s national coordinator and in charge of Rajasthan and Bihar, filed his nomination for Rajya Sabha seat from UP on Monday. BSP’s move has brought a twist to the as the party does not have the numbers to win this seat on its own.
Gautam filed his nomination in the presence of party’s national general secretary Satish Mishra and other senior party members.With his selection as its RS candidate, BSP has attempted to strike two birds with one stone. Gautam is a Dalit and the party wants to send a strong message to its core supporters ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. He is also a party worker, having joined BSP in 2015 and since having risen in rank, and the decision to field an insider is expected to boost the morale of the party which has been losing its vote share across all states, including UP, over the past few years.
Even as the party officially remained mum on who it was banking on for support to see its candidate through, sources said that BSP was likely to take support from multiple parties. “A candidate needs 36 votes to win while BSP has just 15 votes as two of its members have officially rebelled and one is in prison. In fact, there might be a few hiccups even with 15. That leaves BSP to seek support from either BJP or from a mix of parties like SP, Congress, SBSP,” said a party member.
Currently, BJP is expected to safely win eight seats with 304 members in UP Assembly while SP with 48 MLAs can win the ninth. BSP officially has 18 MLAs of whom two have rebelled. Apna Dal has nine, Congress seven and SBSP four. There are five independents as well.