RS polls: Akhilesh Yadav expects to win 3 seats amid cross-voting speculation

Ahead of the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha and amid speculation of cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election, Samajwadi Party Cheif Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday expected to win three seats, where the party has put up candidates, in the Rajya Sabha election.In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has put up eight Rajya Sabha candidates and the Samajwadi Party 3 for the 10 seats at stake. They are being lured by the Bharatiya Janata Party camp," added SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav.The National General Secretary of Samajwadi Party, Shivpal Singh Yadav, also said that democratic values have been finished off. The results will be in favour of BJP.all candidates of BJP will win"The seven candidates fielded by the BJP are former Union Minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of the party's Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain.But with the BJP fielding Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate, a keen contest is on the cards in one of the seats.The SP has fielded actor MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan, and Ramji Lal Suman.To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from UP, a candidate needs nearly 37 first preference votes. Voting for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats will be held on Tuesday and the results will be announced the same day.While the NDA and SP-Congress were negotiating with other parties on Monday in an attempt to gather the necessary support for their candidates, the BJP gained momentum when Raja Bhaiyya's Jansatta Dal-Loktantrik promised to extend the support of its two MLAs to the party.Following his grandfather Chaudhary Charan Singh being honoured with the Bharat Ratna earlier this month, Jayant Chaudhary had already declared RLD's support for the BJP.