Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav filed his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha poll accompanied by party chief and nephew Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday.
UP SP chief Naresh Uttam Patel, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary and other party legislators were also present during the process at Rajarshi Purushottam Das Tandon Hall of UP Legislative Assembly.
The SP candidate filed two sets of nominations before the returning officer.
Notification for the biennial polls was issued on Tuesday and October 27 is the last date for filing nominations.
Scrutiny of papers will be done on October 28 while November 2 is the last date of withdrawal of nomination.
If required, polling will be held on November 9 and the results will be declared the same day.
After filing papers, Yadav said, “The people of the country and state are unhappy. I do not want to say anything that rattles the ruling party. I thank the party brass for choosing me as the candidate for Rajya Sabha for a fifth consecutive time.”
With 310 seats in the 403-member Assembly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to win eight of the 10 seats comfortably, while the SP with 46 MLAs can win one and the opposition parties can win another seat if they field a joint candidate.
The BJP can win the 9th seat if it poaches on the 19 votes of the Bahujan Samaj Party and seven of the Congress and the surplus votes of Samajwadi Party.
There are eight vacancies in the Assembly and hence its actual strength is 395.
The winning candidates will need 34 first preference votes.
Except for the SP, no other party, including the BJP, has announced its candidates so far.
According to the affidavit on assets filed by Ram Gopal Yadav along with the nomination paper, the gross total values of his assets are over Rs 2.09 crore which includes Rs 66 lakh in several accounts in various banks. He has invested Rs 35 lakh in mutual funds and has given loan of over Rs 12 lakh to a rice mill and of Rs 26.50 lakh to his son Akshay Yadav, the former MP from Firozabad. He has two vehicles registered in his name and their worth is over Rs 17 lakh.
Ram Gopal Yadav has 610 gram gold and jewellery worth Rs 30.70 lakh. He also owns agricultural land and commercial and residential buildings. The present market value of his immovable assets is over Rs 12.10 crore.
Yadav also owns weapons worth Rs 1.30 lakh that include an American carbine, a Czechoslovakian-made rifle and a German revolver.
The Rajya Sabha members from UP whose terms end on November 25, are Union minister and BJP member Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh and Neeraj Shekhar. The SP retiring members include Ram Gopal Yadav, Ravi Prakash Verma, Dr Chandrapal Singh Yadav and Javed Ali Khan. The BSP’s members to retire on November 25 are Veer Singh and Rajaram while the term of Congress member PL Punia also ends on the same date.
