'In the Name of Lord Ram...': Who Are the 7 SP MLAs Who Cross-voted During Rajya Sabha Polls in UP?

“Hum antaratma ki awaaz ke saath jayenge (I will go with my conscience), will vote in the name of Lord Ram,” said SP MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey, while casting his vote in the Rajya Sabha election on Tuesday. His voice was not the only “voice of dissent” heard in the House, as the BJP swept the polls in Uttar Pradesh by the winning eight seats while the SP won two. There were six others who joined the queue and listened to their antaratma, leading to cross-voting in the polls.

Rakesh Kumar Pandey, father of MP Ritesh Pandey who recently switched to the BJP from the BSP; Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Vinod Chaturvedi, Pooja Pal and Ashutosh Maurya were other SP MLAs who ditched their boss Akhilesh Yadav and cross-voted in favour of the BJP. Maharajji Prajapati, meanwhile, did not show up.

These seven MLAs also skipped the crucial dinner meeting called by Akhilesh on the eve of the polls. As seven MLAs cross-voted for the BJP, Akhilesh on Tuesday said the party’s decision to field a third candidate was a “loyalty test” to identify the rebels.

“Our third seat in the Rajya Sabha was actually a test to identify the true comrades and to know who was with the PDA at heart and who was against the backward classes, Dalits and minorities by conscience. Now everything is clear, this is the victory of the third seat,” he said in a post on X.

Here is all you need to know about the MLAs who failed the “loyalty test”:

Manoj Kumar Pandey: The SP MLA from Unchahar in Raebareli district resigned from the post of party chief whip amid the voting for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in UP on Tuesday. He won the previous assembly elections in 2022 by defeating BJP candidate Amarpal Maurya by a margin of 6,621 votes, and has held this seat since the first election after its creation in 2012. Manoj was a cabinet minister in the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led government. He was born in Raebareli and completed his graduation from Kanpur University’s Feroze Gandhi College.

Rakesh Kumar Pandey: The MLA from Jalalpur constituency was born and brought up in Kotwa Mohamadpur in UP’s Ambedkar Nagar district. He is an agriculturist by profession and has two sons. His son Ritesh Pratap Pandey is an MP from Ambedkar Nagar constituency. Rakesh’s political career picked up in 2002, and he has been MLA from 2002 to 2007 and also served as an MP from Ambedkar Nagar from 2007 to 2014. In January 2022, he left the BSP and joined the SP following which he won Jalalpur in the 2022 state assembly elections by defeating the BSP’s Rajesh Singh with a margin of 13,630 votes.

Abhay Singh: The MLA represents Goshainganj assembly constituency in UP’s Ayodhya district. Singh is a graduate from the University of Lucknow and is an agriculturist by profession. He had defeated BSP candidate Indra Pratap Tiwari in the 2012 assembly elections, but lost the seat in 2017. In 2022, he was fielded by the SP, and he defeated BJP’s Arti Tiwari, who is the wife of MLA Indra Pratap Tiwari, by a margin of 13,079 votes.

Pooja Pal: She is the wife of former Allahabad West MLA Raju Pal, who was allegedly murdered following the defeat of Mohammed Ashraf in the 2004 elections. Subsequently, Ashraf, who was named the key accused in the case, became the MLA. But, in the 2007 assembly polls, Ashraf was defeated by Pooja. After the murder of Umesh Pal, the key witness in the murder case, along with his two security guards on February 25, 2023, she made a formal request for Y+ security in a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Rakesh Pratap Singh: He is the MLA from Amethi’s Gauriganj assembly constituency. Born and brought up in Mau district, Singh completed his schooling from Pratapgarh. He has served three terms as an MLA from Gauriganj. In the 2012 assembly polls, he defeated his closest rival Mohammed Nayeem of the Congress after securing 44,287 votes. In 2017, he won again by defeating Nayeem with a margin of 77,915 votes. On October 31, 2021, he resigned from the BJP government and, in 2022, defeated BJP’s Chandra Prakash Mishra by a margin of 6,963 votes. In May 2023, he was booked for allegedly attacking the husband of BJP’s Gauriganj municipality chairperson on the premises of a police station.

Ashutosh Maurya: The MLA represents Bisauli constituency. Maurya has been an MLA for a single term. He lost his seat in the 2017 assembly elections to Kushagra Sagar, a BJP candidate.

Vinod Chaturvedi: The MLA represents Kalpi constituency in Jalaun district. He won the 2022 assembly elections by defeating BSP candidate Chhote Singh by a margin of 2,816 votes.