Yogi’s ‘dinner politics’ is a game in UP! These 7 MLAs including SP’s Manoj Pandey-Pawan Pandey voted for BJP

Despite being assured of winning seven seats in the Rajya Sabha elections of 10 seats in UP, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded eight candidates. After this move of BJP, speculations started about a breach in Samajwadi Party (SP) and other opposition parties. Now that the voting process is nearing completion, something similar seems to be happening. SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has also accepted that the victory of the party’s third candidate is difficult.

If SP, which till morning had claimed the victory of all its three candidates, is now believing that the victory of its third candidate is difficult, then the reason behind it is the cross-voting of the MLAs. Seven SP MLAs crossed the party line and voted in support of BJP’s eighth candidate Sanjay Seth. If sources are to be believed, SP Chief Whip Manoj Pandey and Rakesh Pandey along with Rakesh Pratap Singh, Abhay Singh, Vinod Chaturvedi, Pooja Pal and Ashutosh Maurya have voted for the BJP candidate.

Hakimchandra Bind, SP MLA from Handia assembly seat of Prayagraj district, was also reported to have voted in favor of the BJP candidate. However, Handia MLA denied the news of cross voting and claimed that we have voted for the SP candidate. Pallavi Patel, who has been attacking Akhilesh Yadav over PDA since the announcement of candidates for Rajya Sabha elections, came late to vote. He has also claimed to vote for the SP candidate. While one SP MLA Maharaji Devi abstained from voting.

How the number game changed after cross voting

BJP and its allies together had the support of 286 MLAs against the 296 first preference votes required for victory for eight candidates. Of these, Abbas Ansari, an MLA from Omprakash Rajbhar’s party, is in jail. In such a situation, the strength of NDA remained 285. Two MLAs from Raja Bhaiya’s party also voted for BJP, taking the party’s first preference votes to 287. Now, with the cross voting of seven SP MLAs, BJP’s first preference votes have reached 294. BJP leaders claim that at least 10 SP MLAs have cross-voted and the victory of the party’s eighth candidate is certain.

Now it is a matter to be understood as to how the entire equation was set? BJP is not a party which fields candidates without any preparation or assessing the multiplication of votes. In such a situation, it was believed from the beginning that only after getting positive response from the MLAs of other parties, BJP would have decided to field the eighth candidate on the last day of nomination. Now on the day of voting the picture is almost clear. BJP leaders are claiming cross voting of at least 10 MLAs. However, so far only names of seven MLAs have been revealed quoting sources.

Yogi’s dinner politics became a game

Just a day before voting for Rajya Sabha elections, both BJP and SP had invited their MLAs for dinner. CM Yogi Adityanath took command from BJP side while Akhilesh Yadav was on the front from SP side. There was extensive brainstorming on the party’s strategy regarding voting in CM Yogi’s dinner politics and then just before the voting, its results also became visible. At the same time, eight MLAs stayed away from Akhilesh’s dinner. This was a clear message that SP is moving towards disunity.

Manoj Pandey, MLA from Unchahar seat of Rae Bareli, one of the leaders closest to Akhilesh Yadav, resigned from the post of Chief Whip of SP. Shortly after this, Dayashankar Singh, a minister in the Yogi government, met Manoj Pandey at his residence. After meeting Dayashankar, Manoj Pandey left to vote.