Samajwadi Party fields Kapil Sibal, Dimple Yadav for Rajya Sabha elections
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 upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, Sibal said that he is in the fray for the Upper House as an independent candidate and has the support of the Samajwadi Party.
Sibal, who filed his nomination along with Akhilesh Yadav and senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, told reporters, “I have filed nomination as an independent candidate. I thank Akhilesh ji for supporting me.”
“I resigned from the Congress on May 16 and I am no longer a senior Congress leader,” he said.
Sibal, a lawyer by profession, shares cordial relations with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and other SP leaders. He recently represented senior SP leader Azam Khan in the Supreme Court and helped him get bail. He also helped Akhilesh retain the party’s election symbol ‘cycle’ in 2017 when the Yadav family was locked in a family feud.
The SP’s decision to support Sibal’s candidature is being seen as a mutual gesture by the party to help Azam Khan in his legal battle.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party has also fielded Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav and Javed Ali for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Elections for 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will be held on June 10. The maximum number of seats come in Uttar Pradesh i.e. 11.
The SP is in a comfortable position with winning three seats. The party had in the past also supported Sibal’s candidature by transferring its surplus votes. In the current scenario, the SP has around 20 surplus votes which it can transfer to the fourth candidate.
Read more: Rajya Sabha Elections: Voting on 57 seats in 11 states on June 10