Cross-voting to 2027 polls: Why Akhilesh dropped plan to put up third RS candidate

On the final day for nominating candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) abandoned its plan to field a third candidate, opting instead to concentrate on the upcoming state Assembly elections in February 2027. This decision came a day after party MLA Ravidas Mehrotra revealed that the party had finalized the paperwork for the third candidate spot.

The SP's shift in focus from Rajya Sabha to Assembly elections was signaled by SP president Akhilesh Yadav's statement on social media, in which he urged the party to focus on the 403 seats instead of the three. The BJP and the SP have sufficient numbers to secure seven and two seats respectively in the Rajya Sabha polls. The SP's last-minute decision was driven by the challenges in securing the required first-preference votes for a third candidate, compounded by the approaching state Assembly elections.

The SP's calculations also revealed that they needed nine more first-preference votes to elect their third candidate, while the BJP required only two additional votes to ensure victory for their eighth candidate. The BJP currently has 255 MLAs and 33 NDA allies, totaling 294 members, while the SP has 101 MLAs, with an effective strength of 102 after Puja Pal switched to the BJP.

The BJP has a slight edge in the Rajya Sabha polls, needing just two more votes to secure victory for their eighth candidate, while the SP needed nine more to elect their third candidate.