Voting for the biennial elections in 15 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh is underway. The voting process commenced at 9 am in the upper house, with vote counting scheduled to start at 5 pm. 41 leaders for 56 seats have already been elected unopposed including former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan.
Concerns regarding potential cross-voting have surfaced and hence, the Congress and the Congress and the Samajwadi Party are keeping a strict watch on their MLAs.
The Congress in Karnataka had moved all of its MLAs to a hotel on Monday while the Congress in Himachal Pradesh had sent out a whip telling all of its MLAs to support Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the party’s nominee. On Monday, as many as eight SP MLAs did not attend a dinner meeting called by party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
In Uttar Pradesh, the stage is set for a high-pitched electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh with the ruling BJP fielding eight candidates and the opposition Samajwadi Party fielding three candidates for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats. Although the BJP has enough numbers to send seven members unopposed, the presence of eighth candidate Sanjay Seth has increased the likelihood of a competitive contest for one seat.
On Monday, as many as eight SP MLAs did not attend a dinner meeting called by party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
A senior SP leader requesting anonymity said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections.
The BJP and the SP are the two largest parties in the 403-member state assembly with 252 and 108 MLAs, respectively. The Congress, an alliance partner of the SP, has two seats. BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 seats, NISHAD Party has six seats, RLD has nine, SBSP six, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik two and the BSP has one seat. Four seats are currently vacant.
To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs 37 first preference votes.
Candidates fielded by the BJP: Former SP leader Sanjay Seth, former Union minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh, and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain.
Candidates fielded by the Samajwadi Party: Actor-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan, and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
