UP parties split to back Kovind in Prez polls
According to reports, two legislators from the Congress and three from the BSP are ready to vote in favour of the NDA candidate.
Lucknow: Parties in Uttar Pradesh are ready to cross party lines in the upcoming presidential elections.
Divisions have started emerging in the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress with legislators ready to defy their parties in the upcoming presidential elections.
According to reports, two legislators from the Congress and three from the BSP are ready to vote in favour of the NDA candidate. Their only condition is that the ruling party should save them from any possible action that could cost them their membership.
Three independent MLAs — Raghuraj Pratap Singh (also known as Raja Bhaiyya), Vinod Saroj and Aman Mani Tripathi — will vote for the BJP nominee, while Vijay Misra, who won on the Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal party ticket, will also support the BJP.
Raja Bhaiyya has reportedly been entrusted with the responsibility of getting MLAs of other parties to vote for Mr Kovind, and he is already on the job. Raja Bhaiyya was a minister in the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led government and was considered close to the SP leadership.
The biggest shocker, however, is that SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is all set to give another major jolt to the Samajwadi Party led by his estranged son Akhilesh Yadav.