Rattled by heavy cross-voting by its legislators in the recently-concluded Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Council elections, the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh on Monday suspended four MLAs suspected of going against the party whip and voting for other parties.
The four MLAs are Nawazish Alam Khan from Budhana seat (Muzaffarnagar), Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit from Dibai, Mukesh Sharma from Sikarpur (Bulandshehar) Shyam Prakash from Gopamau (Hardoi). Arvind Kumar Singh Gope, SP state general secretary and cabinet minister, said the punitive measure was taken against them for “defying party orders” and “acting contrary” to it.
In the recently concluded MLC and RS elections, more than half-a-dozen SP MLAs are understood to have cross-voted. Since voting for the MLC elections is not open, the SP had to identify the dissenters.
SP Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav had admitted there was cross-voting and said the rebels would be identified and action taken against them. But some names were a giveaway, party sources said, including Guddu Pandit who was seen hobnobbing with BJP MLA Sangeet Som and even made statements against his party on voting day.
As the SP prepares to battle anti-incumbency, it is expected to cut tickets of a number of its MLAs, some of whom have begun seeking greener pastures in the BJP.
In spite of the cross-voting, all seven candidates fielded by the SP -- Amar Singh, Beni Prasad Verma,Kuwar Reoti Raman Singh, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Sukhram Singh Yadav, Surendra Nagar and controversial builder Sanjay Seth - made it to the Upper House of Parliament. However, the going was tough for the SP’s seventh candidate who fell short of a few first-preference votes in spite of the party having sufficient numbers in the State Assembly. All eight of the SP’s candidates also won in the MLC elections.
The confusion could be credited to the BJP’s tactics of introducing extra candidates in both the elections and thus necessitating voting, opening doors for horse-trading and cross-voting.
If in the MLC elections the BJP fielded a second candidate Dayashankar Singh, in the RS elections it supported an independent Gujarat-origin socialiate Preeti Mahapatra. Both candidates lost but not without giving a scare to bigwigs like former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who just scraped past Ms. Mahapatra with 25 first preference votes four less than the number of MLAs the Congress had (29). In the MLC polls, Mr. Singh also made a mark as he secured 23 votes, 11 more than the party’s spares votes, meaning that the BJP received votes from other parties.
The elections also exposed chinks in the armour of the Congress. In worrying signs for the party, many of its MLAs, especially from the Muslim community, are believed to have voted for other parties. The party reacted by sacking a key leader and MLA from Tiloi in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, Mohammad Muslim for anti-party activities. Mr.Muslim openly criticised the Congress leadership and even claimed to have voted for the BSP in the RS elections.
