By IANS,
Lucknow : Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was among the front runners for a second term in the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and filed his nomination papers amid much fanfare here Thursday.
Together with Singh, it was Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s cousin and party think-tank Ram Gopal Yadav, who also filed his nomination.
Even as speculation was rife that the party would field yet another high profile candidate, top industrialist Anil Ambani, both Singh and Yadav remained evasive on the issue. They simply parried queries relating to the question of a third party nominee.
“We do not have the desired numbers to field a third nominee,” observed Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief. The party has 95 legislators who are to elect members to the upper house of the national parliament.
With 37 MLAs required to elect one Rajya Sabha member, Samajwadi Party’s tally of 95 would still leave 21 spare votes. However, the party bigwigs chose to remain non-commital about transferring these spare votes to someone outside the party.
Asked if the party proposed to reserve the spare 21 votes for a nominee of the Congress that is short of the minimum strength, Amar Singh told mediapersons: “Why do you want us to support the Congress at all times? Haven’t we already extended invaluable support to them by saving their government at the centre?”
In the same vein, he quipped: “Now, it should be their turn to support us.”
However, Mulayam Singh promptly butted in to add: “We could consider extending our support to the Congress candidate provided the Congress party seeks such support from us.”