Lucknow: With just a day to go for polling for the 10 seats to the Rajya Sabha from UP, BSP president Mayawati has asked Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav to send her a list of 10 “dedicated” legislators who will be voting for her candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar.
Ms Mayawati is apparently wary of cross voting by SP MLAs and wanted to be doubly sure that such MLAs are not allotted to her candidate.
This demand could now spell trouble for the SP candidate Jaya Bachchan since the party has only nine surplus votes and the BSP wants a list of ten which means that Ms Bachchan will have one less vote.
SP MLA Nitin Agarwal, son of Mr Naresh Agarwal, has already stated that he will be voting for the BJP.
Ms Mayawati has convened a meeting of her legislators later Thursday evening, while BSPs MP attended a lunch meeting of Congress legislators along with UPCC president Raj Babbar in the afternoon.
The BSP has 19 MLAs and is relying on the support of 10 SP MLAs, seven Congress MLAs and one RLD MLA to reach the required figure of 37 to emerge a winner.
If even one of the SP MLAs cross votes, there could be trouble for the BSP candidate.
