Rajya Sabha Polls: Tough Fight In Upper House With Shadow Of Cross-Voting In 3 States

(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) The Rajya Sabha biennial elections, scheduled to take place on Tuesday (February 27), have already seen 41 candidates security their seats unopposed in the Upper House due to lack of opposition, leaving seats up for grabs in three states, including Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.

Polling will be held for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Karnataka and one seat in Himachal Pradesh from 9 am to 4 pm on Tuesday and counting will be held on the same day from 5 pm onwards. Notably, the shadow of cross-voting looms large with parties keeping a keen watch on its MLAs.

Although the results will be formally declared on February 27, out of the 56 candidates 41 have already been elected as they were unopposed. The leaders elected include - Ashok Chavan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Sonia Gandhi, JP Nadda and L Murugan among others.

Uttar Pradesh

There are ten seats and eleven candidates in the UP. Former Union Minister R P N Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, former Agra mayor Naveen Jain, former MLA Sadhna Singh, former party general secretary Amarpal Maurya, and former minister Sangeeta Balwant are the candidates put up by the BJP. Actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan, former state chief secretary Alok Ranjan, and Dalit activist Ramji Lal Suman have all been fielded by the SP.

To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs nearly 37 first preference votes.

Karnataka

There are five candidates running for the four Rajya Sabha seats from the southern state. Previous Union Minister Ajay Maken, current Rajya Sabha MPs Syed Nasir Hussain and G C Chandrashekar of the Congress, former BJP MLC Narayansa Bhandage, and Kupendra Reddy are among those contesting.

Himachal Pradesh

The BJP has compelled a battle for the state's lone seat in Himachal Pradesh by putting Harsh Mahajan against Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress. With the BJP having 25 MLAs and the Congress having 40, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu would view the election as a contest for prestige. A candidate needs 35 votes in the 68-member Himachal Assembly to be elected to the Upper House of Parliament.

Currently, the Rajya Sabha has a strength of 245. The term for Upper House MPs is six years, and elections are held every two years for 33 per cent of the seats.

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