Lucknow: The two BSP and SP MLAs who voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections have been awarded ‘Y’ category security cover as a ‘return-gift’ from the Yogi Adityanath government.
The crucial votes of BSP's Anil Singh, MLA from Purva (Unnao), and SP's Nitin Agrawal, MLA from Hardoi, had resulted in the defeat of BSP’s lone Rajya Sabha candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar on Saturday.
Singh, who had been suspended by BSP chief Mayawati for voting in favour of the BJP, had met UP CM Adityanath on Saturday and sought a tighter security cover. After this, the home department issued orders to provide ‘Y’ category security to the legislator.
Along with him, SP MLA Nitin Agarwal was also awarded the higher security grade. Nitin Agarwal is the son of former senior SP leader Naresh Agarwal who had recently joined BJP after being denied ticket to Rahya Sabha by the Samajwadi Party.
In the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections for 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won 9 seats while one seat was bagged by Samajwadi Party, with Jaya Bachchan sailing through. The polls were marred by cross-voting from both the sides, which led to the defeat of BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Besides BJP's prominent winner Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, others who made it to the Upper House from the party are Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav and GVL Narasimha Rao.
The party’s ninth candidate was Anil Kumar Agarwal, who pulled off an upset with the help of second preference votes. He had won 16 first preference votes to Ambedkar’s 32 but pulled ahead in the second round. A candidate needed votes from 37 MLAs to secure a seat.
With one BSP MLA believed to have cross-voted and two others in jail being denied permission to vote, it was always going to be an uphill task for the opposition to ensure victory for their second candidate.
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