New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) : Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar on Tuesday took a jibe at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav over the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, after the SP leader said that his party was now eyeing all 403 Assembly seats in the state.
Rajbhar said that daydreaming was not a bad thing while taking a dig at Yadav over his “403” remark.
Rajbhar took to social media platform X and said, “Friend Akhilesh ji, ‘Ho gaya na Tai Tai Phish’. Anyway, even if only once in a blue moon, you do manage to do something sensible, like you did today. As for the 403 thing, I’ll just say this: dreaming isn’t a bad thing.”
Earlier in the day, Akhilesh Yadav had said, “Now our eyes are not on three, but on 403.”
The remark came amid speculation over the SP’s strategy for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that the SP may field another candidate for the third Rajya Sabha seat.
Elections are being held for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, and a candidate needs the votes of 37 MLAs to win one seat. The current effective strength of the state Assembly is 396, while the Samajwadi Party has 98 MLAs.
If the SP had fielded a third candidate, it would have needed 111 first-preference votes to win all three seats. After securing two seats, the party would have had around 25 votes left. Therefore, winning the third seat would have required the support of at least 12 additional MLAs.
Akhilesh Yadav had earlier stated that the party would field a third candidate only if it managed to secure the required numbers. However, his latest ‘not three, but 403’ remark has led to speculation that the Samajwadi Party may have decided not to contest the third Rajya Sabha seat.
In such a situation, the SP’s strategy in the Rajya Sabha elections appears to be limited to securing two seats, while Akhilesh Yadav has now set his sights on all 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, on September 30, SP leaders Ram Gopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced the names of eight candidates for the upcoming biennial Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. The biennial elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in the country’s most populous state are scheduled to be held on October 16.
