Akhilesh Yadav To Ally With RLD's Jayant Chaudhary For RS Polls

Mr. Jayant will be SP's 3rd candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has decided to choose ally Jayant Chaudhary as the party's third candidate for the upper house.

According to the sources, there was speculation earlier that Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav was his likely choice for the upper house of parliament.

Yesterday, after reports that Dimple Yadav had snagged the slot, Jayant Chaudhary was reportedly upset.

Moreover, the sources added that the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called his Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ally this morning to inform him that he was the party's final choice for Rajya Sabha.

On Tuesday, Jayant Chaudhary had reportedly been given the message that he was out of the running for the three Rajya Sabha seats that the Samajwadi Party has from Uttar Pradesh.

Former Congress leader Kapil Sibal and Javed Ali Khan are the other two candidates that the Samajwadi Party is backing.

SP chief had promised to send Jayant Chaudhary to the Rajya Sabha but they disagreed. Mr Yadav wanted him in the upper house under the Samajwadi Party's banner but Mr. Chaudhary insisted on ongoing as his own party RLD's candidate with support from the Samajwadi Party, the sources added.

The upper house (RS) elections next month will include 11 Uttar Pradesh seats.

Overall, the election for 57 seats, spanning 15 states, will be held on June 10.

The ruling govt. (BJP) recently had returned to power in the politically crucial state with a massive win, and is set to maintain its dominance in the upper house by occupying around 80 per cent of the total seats.

Uttar Pradesh sends 31 MPs to the upper house; 11 of them are set to retire on July 4. This will include five from the BJP, three from the Samajwadi Party, two from Mayawati's BSP and one from the Congress. At present, the BJP has a strength of 22, while Samajwadi Party has five. The BSP and the Congress have three and one each.