The Samajwadi Party will field Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman, and Alok Ranjan for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on February 27. SP national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary announced the names on Tuesday.
Chaudhary said all the candidates filed their nominations on Wednesday. Ramji Lal Suman is a former MP and is among the very close associates of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Veteran actor Jaya Bachchan, wife of actor Amitabh Bachchan, has been the party's Rajya Sabha representative since 2004. Former IAS officer Alok Ranjan was the Chief Secretary of the state during the tenure of the Samajwadi Party and is considered to have a strong influence among the officer class.
Samajwadi Party has three members in the Rajya Sabha — Ram Gopal Yadav, Javed Ali Khan, and Jaya Bachchan — at present.
Who The Candidates Are
Ramji Lal Suman
Ramji Lal Suman is the National General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party. Ramji Lal Suman, from Bahardoi village in UP, was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Firozabad in 1977 at the age of 26. He won the Firozabad four times in 1977, 1989, 1999, and 2004. He won the 1977 and 1989 elections on a Janata Dal ticket. He joined Mulayam Singh Yadav when he founded the Samajwadi Party in 1992. SP had fielded him from Hathras Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019, but he could not win.
Alok Ranjan
Alok Ranjan served as the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh in the Akhilesh government between 2014 and 2016. After that, he also worked as Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav from 2016 to 2017. Alok Ranjan is in the inner circle of Akhilesh Yadav. He played an important role in preparing the manifesto of the Samajwadi Party in the assembly elections held in 2022. Alok Ranjan's name also figures prominently among those who raised the issue of the old pension scheme by the Samajwadi Party.
JAYA BACHCHAN
Actor Jaya Bachan has been SP's Rajya Sabha member since 2004, having been elected 4 times. Bachchan received India's fourth-highest civilian honour Padma Shri in 1992. She also received several awards for acting throughout her career. She is an alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India.
Why Has SP Fielded Only 3 Candidates For Rajya Sabha Election?
A candidate will need at least 37 first-preference votes to secure a seat in the Rajya Sabha. At present, Samajwadi Party has a total of 108 votes for the Rajya Sabha elections. Whereas its I.N.D.I.A partner Congress has two votes, which takes the total count to 110. To win a Rajya Sabha seat, 37 votes are required. Hence, SP can field a maximum of three candidates and need 111 votes.
The last date for filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections is February 15. Voting will take place on February 27 and the results will be declared the same day.