Akhilesh meets MLAs ahead of RS polls in UP

Lucknow: Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav today held a meeting with party MLAs and discussed the election strategy with them. “We know how to contest polls. Our candidate is winning and we are also going to ensure victory of the other (BSP) candidate,” senior SP leader and MLA Parasnath Yadav told reporters.

SP has 47 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, of whom Nitin Agarwal is expected to vote for the BJP. Nitin Agrawal is the son of Naresh Agrawal, who recently quit SP and joined the BJP. Apart from Nitin Agrawal, another SP MLA missing from today’s meeting was Shivpal Yadav.

Sources close to Shivpal Yadav, however, said he was in Etawah and will attend the dinner hosted by the party this evening. Senior party leader Azam Khan, his son Abdullah Azam, Hariom (lodged in jail) were also absent from the meeting.

Party leaders, however, asserted that they were firmly within the SP fold and expressed confidence that their candidates would emerge victorious in the Rajya Sabha polls. The SP has hosted a dinner this evening at a hotel in which, besides party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav and Shivpal Yadav would be present.