RS polls: Bachchan and Ranjan are not among PDA, will not cast my vote: Pallavi Patel

Lucknow, Feb 14 (PTI) Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel, who is an ally of the Samajwadi Party, on Wednesday said she will not vote in the Rajya Sabha polls as she did not agree with the SP decision to field Bollywood actor Jaya Bachchan and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan.

Patel, who is the sister of Union Minister and Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel, had contested the 2022 assembly elections on the SP ticket.

“We are talking of PDA- ‘picchde, Dalit and alpsankhyak’. Ranjan and Bachchan are not among the PDA. I am not going to cast my votes against this ‘dhokha’ (deceit),” Patel told PTI.

PDA is the term coined by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for “picchde, Dalit and alpsankhyak” (backward, Dalit and minorities) for which his party is batting for in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Patel had defeated Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu seat in Kaushambi on the Samajwadi Party’s ticket in the 2022 polls.

Her party Apna Dal (K) had fought the 2022 assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and she had contested on the party’s ticket.

Besides Ramji Lal Suman, a Dalit, the SP has fielded Bollywood actor Jaya Bachchan and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan for the Rajya Sabha polls.

In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the BJP has 252 members, the SP has 108 and the Congress has two.

The SP and the Congress are the opposition parties in the state and also partners in the INDIA bloc, an alliance of parties to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

BJP allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 members, while the NISHAD party has six in the House. The RLD has nine members, the SBSP has six, the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has two and the BSP has one. Four seats are vacant.

A candidate needs 37 first preference votes to secure a seat in the Rajya Sabha.

The elections for 56 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states are scheduled to be held on February 27 and the last date for filing the nominations is February 15.