E-Paper
SP to seek membership cancellation of rebel MLAs who cross-voted in RS polls
A total of seven SP MLAs—Manoj Pandey, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Rakesh Pandey, Pooja Pal, Vinod Chaturvedi, Ashutosh Verma and Abhay Singh—had cross-voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held in February
After its biggest victory ever in the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is now gearing up for the cancellation of membership of seven of MLAs who rebelled against the party in the Rajya Sabha elections earlier this year and voted in favour of the BJP leading to the defeat of an SP nominee Alok Ranjan.
As per sources in the party, seven SP MLAs, including party’s the then chief whip Manoj Pandey, surprised the party by supporting the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha elections. It had led to embarrassment and anger in the SP over the “betrayal”.
The Samajwadi Party that had left the issue untouched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls 2024 is now preparing to submit a plea to the UP legislative assembly speaker to seek cancellation of the membership of the seven, the sources added.
A total of seven SP MLAs—Manoj Pandey, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Rakesh Pandey, Pooja Pal, Vinod Chaturvedi, Ashutosh Verma and Abhay Singh—had cross-voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held in February this year. While one SP MLA Maharaji Prajapati had abstained from voting. Interestingly, the BJP lost all the Lok Sabha constituencies from where these rebels are MLAs to the INDIA bloc.
Following the Lok Sabha election results in which the SP emerged victorious in Uttar Pradesh, speculations are that the group of seven MLAs barring Maharaji Prajapati attempted to arrange meetings with SP leader Akhilesh Yadav to discuss rejoining the party. However, Akhilesh Yadav declined to either meet these MLAs or take them back into the party fold.
Meanwhile, when HT asked Manoj Pandey and Rakesh Pratap Singh if they made any attempt to meet Akhilesh, both rejected the speculations. “Why would we?,” said Manoj Pandey. Rakesh Pandey also said so and added: “Whatever action they want to take, they are most welcome to do that. We too would do whatever is legally appropriate”.
Rakesh Pratap Singh is an MLA from an assembly segment in Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, Manoj Pandey from an assembly segment in Rae Bareli, Rakesh Pandey and Abhay Singh are legislators from two different assembly segments in Ambedkar Nagar, Pooja Pal from an assembly segment in Allahabad Lok Sabha, Ashutosh Maurya from Budaun and Vinod Chaturvedi is an MLA from Jalaun.
Apart from them, Maharaji Prajapati, who had abstained from voting in the RS polls, is an MLA from an assembly segment of Amethi. The SP is not likely to initiate any action against Maharaji Prajapati whose husband Gayatri Prasad Prajapati is serving life imprisonment in a rape case.
Barring Prajapati, all the MLAs supported the respective BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. But the BJP lost all these seats--Amethi, Rae Bareli, Ambedkar Nagar, Jalaun, Allahabad and Budaun. The Congress won Amethi and Rae Bareli while the SP won the other four. The SP bagged maximum 37 seats in U.P. in the recently concluded LS polls followed by the ruling BJP that got 33 seats.
