Rajya Sabha polls: BJP bags nine seats, Samajwadi Party 1 in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh: In a big boost to Narendra Modi-led BJP and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the saffron party here won nine seats in the hotly contested elections to Rajya Sabha, the results of which were declared on Friday.

The nine BJP members who have been elected to Rajya Sabha from UP are Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijaya Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narsimha Rao and Anil Agarwal.

Anil Agarwal of the BJP won the tenth Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh, defeating BSP’s BR Ambedkar in the counting of second preference votes.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party candidate Jaya Bachchan too won from Uttar Pradesh. She got 38 votes. Independent MLA Raja Bhaiyya voted for her.    

In all, there were eleven candidates in the fray for the ten seats.

The BJP and its allies have 324 MLAs in the 403-member Assembly after the death of its Noorpur MLA in a road accident recently.

To secure a win, a candidate needed 37 first preference votes. 

The country's most populous state sends 31 MPs to the 245-member Rajya Sabha.