Cross voting by SP legislator rocks Uttar Pradesh

Pradeep Tamta has become the first Dalit to be elected from the hill state to the Upper House. A total of 58 members of the state Assembly cast their votes out of which 32 went to Tamta and 26 to Goel, Vidhan Sabha Secretary Jagdish Chandra said. 

BJP’s Bhimtal MLA Dan Singh Bhandari had resigned from the Assembly on Friday, bringing down the party’s tally in the House to 26, while all 32 members of the Congress-PDF combine cast their votes. Congress has 26 MLAs and PDF six.

Though the victory of Tamta, a prominent Dalit leader from Kumaun, was a foregone conclusion with the numbers heavily stacked in favour of the ruling combine, initial opposition to his candidature from within the party’s state unit and the alliance had given rise to the possibility of last-minute cross voting. However, after the Congress high command intervened, Congress-PDF alliance put up a united face and threw their weight behind Tamta. 

In Uttar Pradesh, there were 12 candidates for 11 seats, with SP contesting for 7, BSP in 2 and BJP, Congress and Independent 1 each. 

After Friday’s peaceful polling in the legislative council polls, tension flared up during RS polls when BJP members raised protests over intimidation of a Samajwadi Party MLA Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit. BJP MLAs protested against alleged intimidation of Guddu by SP leaders. Guddu voted for the BJP in the council polls. On Saturday, while casting his vote he refused to show his ballot to the SP agent which lead to heated discussion. In RS there is open voting. 

Guddu Pandit said that several senior leaders have threatened him since Friday for voting for BJP. He has also sent a complaint to the EC.