Biennial elections to 13 seats in the Vidhan Parishad are scheduled to be held later this month and expectedly, it is the Samajwadi Party that has the maximum number of claimants for the upper house.
Thirteen seats in the Vidhan Parishad will be falling vacant on May 5 and since the Samajwadi Party is in a position to send seven members of the Upper House on the basis of its strength in the Vidhan Sabha, the party has a long list of applicants. To get elected to the Upper House, one would need 29 votes.
From among the seven seats that it can get in the Vidhan Parishad, the nomination of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and revenue minister Ambica Choudhury is a certainty. Mr Akhilesh Yadav has made it clear that he would prefer the Vidhan Parishad route to become a member of the state legislature and Mr Ambica Choudhury has to be sent to the upper house since he lost the recent Assembly elections.
Two journalists and a host of party leaders are said to be keen on getting nominated to the Vidhan Parishad but the SP leadership is keeping the cards close to its chest.
Party sources said that the party could nominate Arvind Singh — who was dropped from the Rajya Sabha list at the last minute to make way for Mrs Jaya Bachchan — and Ms Anuradha Choudhury to the Upper House.
The BJP, which has three members retiring next month, will now be able to send only one member to the Upper House.
The state leadership has forwarded the claim of more than two dozen party leaders for the Vidhan Parishad seat but the choice is likely to narrow down between former Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi, state BJP president Surya Pratap Shahi and former state president Om Prakash Singh.