Samajwadi Party fields RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary for Rajya Sabha polls

Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary will be the joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and RLD for the Rajya Sabha elections.

With this, Jayant Chaudhary will be its third candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, slated to be held on June 10. The RLD is a constituent of the SP-led alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kapil Sibal and Javed Ali filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls. Sibal said that he had quit the Congress last week and is in the fray as an independent candidate with the support of Akhilesh Yadav's SP.

Elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 states will take place on June 10. The maximum number of seats is in Uttar Pradesh, with polls to be held for 11 vacancies.

In February-march this year, the RLD which contested Assembly polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party won only eight out of 33 seats on which the party had fielded candidates. The SP bagged 111 seats, a significant improvement from its 2017 tally when it secured only 47 seats.

The BJP has retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share. Yogi Adityanath is the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.