Samajwadi Party fields Kapil Sibal, Dimple Yadav for Rajya Sabha polls
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said that he has resigned from the party. Speaking to reporters in Lucknow after filing his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections, Sibal said that he is in the fray for Upper House on a Samajwadi Party ticket.
“I had tendered my resignation from the Congress party on 16th May,” Sibal, who was accompanied by Akhilesh Yadav and senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav for filing papers, told reporters.
Sibal, a lawyer by profession, is believed to share a cordial relationship with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and other SP leaders. He recently represented senior SP leader Azam Khan in Supreme Court and helped him secure bail. He had also helped Akhilesh retain the party’s election symbol ‘bicycle’ in 2017 when the Yadav family was locked in a family feud.
The SP’s decision to field Sibal is seen as a reciprocal gesture by the party for helping Azam Khan in his legal battle.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has also fielded Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav and Javed Ali for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will take place on June 10. The maximum number of seats falls in Uttar Pradesh ie 11.
The SP is in a comfortable position to win three seats. The party had in the past as well supported Sibal’s candidature by transferring its surplus votes. In the current scenario, the SP has around 20 surplus votes that it can transfer to the fourth candidate.
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