The BJP’s strategy for the Rajya Sabha poll started becoming evident from Monday night when the Samajwadi Party chief whip Manoj Pandey and seven other party MLAs skipped a dinner hosted by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and it exploded with full force on Tuesday morning.
A few hours after the 9am start to the voting, the seven SP rebels emerged on the Uttar Pradesh assembly balcony, flanked by deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak and transport minister Daya Shankar Singh.
These two leaders – both former Lucknow University Students’ Union (LUSU) chiefs - along with deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya micromanaged the BJP plan of ensuring defections in the opposition ranks through a surgical strike.
The party’s Rajya Sabha in-charge and cooperative minister JPS Rathore kept track of the numbers while UP BJP general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh kept a watch from the state BJP legislature party office.
Senior Yogi 2.0 ministers Suresh Khanna and Surya Pratap Shahi were also present right through the polling as was UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary.
The BJP even got its lawmaker Neel Ratan Patel to come in an ambulance to vote for party candidates.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP even got its lawmaker Neel Ratan Patel to come in an ambulance to vote for party candidates.
{{/usCountry}}Daya Shankar Singh was in close touch with Manoj Pandey and defended his rebel act. “He was feeling suffocated in the SP. He wanted to go to Ayodhya with the all-party delegation on the invitation of U.P. assembly speaker Satish Mahana. However, he couldn’t do that due to the SP leadership. He is a true “sanatani” Hindu and was upset at the SP leadership’s silence over disparaging remarks made on Hindu beliefs by some SP leaders,” he said.
Daya Shankar Singh had been the BJP’s go-to leader to engineer defections in the SP camp not just in the Rajya Sabha polls but also in the 2022 UP polls.
Pandey may get a possible Lok Sabha ticket from Rae Bareli as the BJP candidate against the Congress nominee for the seat. A win from Rae Bareli could secure a ministerial berth for him at the Centre if the BJP wins 2024 Lok Sabha elections to form its third consecutive government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A berth in Yogi 2.0 government is also being talked about as a possibility. On being contacted, Pandey deflected all queries though his aides admitted that he could be the BJP candidate from Rae Bareli.
The addition of nine RLD lawmakers to the NDA camp just ahead of RS polls filled the party with hope and as it now turns out, there was a reason why BJP anxiously courted Kunda lawmaker and Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) chief Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya. “Along with his 2 MLAs, Raja’s influence among his community leaders surely must have come in handy,” a BJP leader said.
This BJP leader perhaps was referring to the fact that some Rajput community leaders like Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh and Dinesh Pratap Singh, considered close to Raja Bhaiya, played a role in opening a “communication channel” with SP lawmaker from Gauriganj Rakesh Pratap Singh and Gosainganj MLA Abhay Singh, who said they heeded call of their “conscience”.
Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya worked behind the scenes to enlist the support of OBCs and Dalits in the SP camp – Pooja Pal, (Chail), Maharaji Prajapati (Amethi, she abstained), and Ashutosh Maurya (Bisauli). Other deputy CM Brajesh Pathak helped the BJP secure the support of Rakesh Pandey, an SP lawmaker from Jalalpur.
Pathak also played a key role in securing the backing of another SP lawmaker from Kalpi, Jalaun, Vinod Chaturvedi.