Rajya Sabha polls in UP: Will Amar Singh return to Samajwadi Party?

Lucknow: Despite a huge majority in the state assembly and no threat to the Akhilesh Yadav-led government in Uttar Pradesh, the SP leadership is betraying signs of unease in the wake of the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which indicates a serious concern for 2017 and beyond.

The party suffered a massive setback in Lok Sabha election, but the recent by-elections brought some cheer to the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party.While in Mainpuri the seat vacated by Mulayam went to his grand-nephew, the party also won seats which were considered strongholds of the BJP, like Charkhari and Kairana.

Now comes yet another opportunity for the SP to re-align its hold over the state in the form of the biennial election for ten seats of Rajya Sabha. Rather than be complacent that the present electoral college ensures victory for six SP candidates, the party leadership is engaged in an intense exercise to choose those candidates who can really provide value-addition, and not merely numbers.

Nominations open for 10 Rajya Sabha seats on 3 November with November 10 being the last date for submitting the papers. Polling is to take place on 20 November for the seats that fall vacant on 25 November. Of these, two had been held by the SP – party secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav and Amar Singh. However, now with its strength in the UP House, the SP can send six members to the Rajya Sabha.

It is learnt that with a clear intent to expand its networking circles in Delhi and beyond, the top SP leadership had been toying with the idea of getting Amar Singh back, burying all differences. This was first visible when Amar Singh made an appearance at a programme in Lucknow some months back to mark late SP leader Janeshwar Mishra’s birth anniversary. While there was no official word on his possible re-entry into the SP, there were several voices that rose against any move to get him back into the party. The most vociferous voice was that of senior UP minister Mohammad Azam Khan who had actually left the SP some years ago miffed at the rising clout of Amar Singh and Jayaprada in the party.

Amar Singh had had two more meetings with Mulayam since then, the latest being on Wednesday, when he also met Akhilesh. Singh had been removed from the all party posts in February 2010 but he continues to be a Rajya Sabha member from Samajwadi Party. He had joined Rashtriya Lok Dal led by AJit Singh some months ago and also unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Fatehpur Sikri. Amar Singh has repeatedly said that he always considered Mulayam as his ’elder brother’ and Akhilesh saying that he considered Amar Singh a respected ‘uncle.’

Political circles are also abuzz with the name of Apna Dal leader Krishna Patel doing the rounds as an SP candidate. If it so happens, it would mark a clear attempt by the SP to win the support of the Kurmi community which used to be with the SP as long as former minister Beni Prasad Varma was with the SP. At present, despite being with the Congress, Varma has been expressing his dissent very frequently and reports that he might be looking forward to return to the SP have been doing the rounds.

However, SP insiders say Krishna Patel, the national president of Apna Dal, could be a better bet for the SP to attract Kurmi support than Varma, since Apna Dal is a part of the NDA. Her daughter Anupriya Patel is the Lok Sabha member from Mirzapur, adjacent to Varanasi. Recently Krishna Patel removed Anupriya from the post of party general secretary, following which the party faces a split. By choosing Krishna Patel, the SP would try to send a signal that the BJP has not been able to hold its allies together. The split with Shiv Sena and the unease with the Shiromani Akali Dal could be mentioned in support of this contention, said an SP leader.

Till date, only Ram Gopal Yadav is certain to be re-nominated, while other names doing the rounds are that of Neeraj Shekhar, an aspiring politician from Ballia and son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, and senior Brahmin leader Ashok Bajpai who was the SP candidate for the Lok Sabha election from Lucknow but was replaced by Abhishek Mishra a few weeks before the polling.

Other names also include Ajit Singh, the RLD president, who has failed to win his traditional Baghpat Lok Sabha seat this time. It also appears certain that there would be at least one prominent Muslim leader in the SP list. Reports in Lucknow suggested that a couple of industry leaders and other prominent citizens, including a journalist, were also in touch with the SP leadership to explore the possibility of being nominated.

Among the ten seats, six are held by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 2 by the SP, and one each by Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With 235 MLAs, now the SP is all set to send 6 members to the Rajya Sabha, while the BJP could send two members, followed by one each for the BSP and the Congress.