Samajwadi Party gives Amar Singh consolation prize — a Rajya Sabha seat

NWE DELHI: Former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh is finally the recipient of some good news. The SP has nominated him for a Rajya Sabha seat.

The SP on Tuesday announced the names of seven party candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for next month.

The SP’s central parliamentary board, at a meeting in Lucknow, said that aside from Amar Singh, the other nominees are Beni Prasad Verma, Sanjay Seth, Sukhram Yadav, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Arvind Singh and Revti Raman Singh.

The meeting was attended by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, senior ministers Shivpal Yadav and Mohammad Azam Khan, special invitee chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Kiranmoy Nanda.

Biennial elections are scheduled in June for 11 Rajya Sabha seats and 13 Uttar Pradesh (UP) Legislative Council seats. Hectic lobbying has already begun in UP, for nominations to these seats.

A Rajya Sabha candidate would need the support of 37 UP lawmakers. A Legislative Council candidate would require the support of 32 UP lawmakers.

The Rajya Sabha and the UP Legislative Council seats will fall vacant on July 4 and July 6, respectively.

As per the existing strength of the different parties in the 403-member UP Assembly, the Samajwadi Party with 227 MLAs will get six nominees for Rajya Sabha, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party(BSP) will get two, and the BJP will get one.

Currently, the BSP has six of these seats and the SP has three.

Similarly, as per their current strength in the Assembly, the SP, the BSP and the BJP will be able to get seven, two and one seats, respectively, in the UP Legislative Council.