Lucknow: Just days ahead of the UP Rajya Sabha elections, a petition has reached Allahabad High Court seeking to count the votes of two jailed MLAs.
Bahujan Samaj Party general secretary, Satish Chandra Mishra, filed the petition on Wednesday to allow the two MLAs to participate in the polls. Mishra had approached the Election Commission on Tuesday but as that did not bear fruit, he moved court. The matter is set for final hearing on Thursday.
With the BJP having eight out of the 10 seats in the bag and the SP assured of the ninth seat, the last Rajya Sabha spot is up for grabs. The competition is said to be between BJP’s Anil Agarwal and BSP’s Bhim Rao Ambedkar with every vote worth its weight in gold.
After the SP-BSP alliance worked together to wrest control of Gorakhpur and Phulpur from the ruling party during the recently concluded bypolls, both jailed leader — BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari and SP’s Hari Om Yadav — would be voting for Ambedkar.
On behalf of the state government, Advocate General Raghvendra Singh opposed the petition, arguing that as per 62(5) provision of People’s Representative Act, anyone in police custody is not to be allowed to participate in voting.
SC Mishra justified to the court that the two MLAs were not in police custody, rather in judicial custody and imprisoned MLAs had been allowed to cast their votes in the past.
BSP MLA from Mau, Mukhtar Ansari, has spent the last decade in jail for his alleged involvement in the Mau riots and for killing BJP MLA Krishnanad Rai. SP’s Hari Om Yadav had surrendered before a court after a warrant was issued against him for his alleged role in panchayat poll violence three years ago.
As per the math, a party needs votes from 37 MLAs to send a candidate to the Rajya Sabha. With 19 of her own, BSP supremo Mayawati is counting on the surplus 10 votes from SP, seven from Congress and one from Ajit Singh’s party to make up the numbers.
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