Uttar Pradesh
Rajya Sabha polls: Akhilesh Yadav faces jolt as SP chief whip quits amid buzz over cross-voting
Lucknow/IBNS: In a jolt to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief whip Manoj Pandey quit amid the buzz over cross-voting following Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s fielding of the eight candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections where 10 seats are up grab from the state.
Pandey's resignation has been accepted.
Pandey and seven other SP MLAs also skipped a meeting called by Akhilesh, the party chief, on Monday night.
The seven other parliamentarians are Mukesh Verma, Maharaji Prajapati, Pooja Pal, Rakesh Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Abhay Singh.
Rakesh Pratap Singh chanted Jai Shri Ram- BJP's political slogan- after casting his vote this morning, stirring speculation over whether he favoured the ruling party.
As per the numbers in the assembly, BJP and SP are expected to win seven and three seats respectively.
However, BJP fielding the eighth candidate has raised speculations of cross voting.
Actress-MP Jaya Bachchan is one of the three candidates fielded by SP, which has 108 MLAs in the assembly as opposed to BJP's 252.
SP's ally Congress has two seats in the 403-member assembly.
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