SHUTTING THE REVOLVING DOOR

On February 22, all the talk in Lucknow was about how UP ke do ladke' (the two boys from Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav) had come together again, sealing the alliance for the Congress and Samajwadi Party in the coming Lok Sabha election.

- Prashant Srivastava

The celebrations were short-lived, though, as a reality check presented itself on February 27 with the Rajya Sabha election. Even as voting was under way, five SP legislators, including the party's chief whip Manoj Kumar Pandey, went to meet Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. By evening, it was clear that seven party MLAs had cross-voted (one more abstained), dashing the SP's chances on what was a sure third seat from the state.

The RS poll was no sidelight intruding upon the main event: it had been one of the key considerations in the formation of the alliance in UP.

Altogether, 10 seats were at stake, with 37 votes needed to win a seat.

The BJP had nominated Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate at the eleventh hour to spite the SP, who had already declared Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman and former chief secretary Alok Ranjan as its candidates. The SP needed 111 votes to win all three seats but had only 108 of its own. So, the two votes from the Congress and one vote from Pallavi Patel (Apna Dal Kamerawadi leader) were crucial. In the end, it didn't matter as the SP's own MLAs did it in, and Ranjan lost.