Samajwadi Party chief whip Manoj Kumar Pandey resigns amid voting in UP for Rajya Sabha polls

Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Pandey resigned from the post of chief whip amid the voting for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. He has pledged to cross-vote for the BJP.  

In a major setback to Samajwadi Party ahead of the voting for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, its chief whip in the Assembly resigned on Tuesday morning.  Manoj Kumar Pandey, the Unchahar MLA, resigned a few hours after up to eight other MLAs failed to show up for a dinner thrown by Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the party. This was concerning given the heightened buzz surrounding cross-voting in the Upper House election.

Voting began this morning in the high-stakes elections for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday with eight BJP candidates and three from the SP in the fray. Akhilesh Yadav, Brajesh Pathak, Keshav Prasad Maurya, and Yogi Aditynath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, were among the well-known figures who showed up in the state Assembly to cast their ballots.

The BJP and the SP are the two largest parties in the 403-member state assembly with 252 MLAs and 108 MLAs respectively. The Congress, an alliance partner of the SP, has two seats.

BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 seats, the NISHAD Party has six seats, RLD has nine seats, SBSP six, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik two and the BSP has one seat. Four seats are currently vacant. 

The SP has fielded actor-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman. To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs nearly 37 first-preference votes.