Elections for 24 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 10 states will be taking place today; most of them had been put on hold since March due to the ongoing pandemic. Elections in the upper house, in which seats from 10 states are in peril, were marked by resignations, switching sides, and allegations of bribery.
Congress-ruled Rajasthan accused the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) of horse-trading, alleging BJP offering 25 crores to the Congress MLAs. The situation was no different in Gujarat where 22 MLAs had been lodged in a resort in Mount Abu to prevent probable poaching by the BJP, after the resignation of eight MLAs since March.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had said that the Rajya Sabha elctions could have been conducted 2 months back, however it was deferred for ‘no reason because BJP’s horse-trading was not complete.’ For the past few days, there have been hectic parleys going on within major parties, chiefly the Congress and the BJP.
Jharkhand: Polling for 24 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states to be held today. In Jharkhand, polling to be held on two Rajya Sabha seats. Visuals from state legislative assembly in Ranchi. #RajyaSabhaElection pic.twitter.com/sQXCSNtNwc
— ANI (@ANI) June 19, 2020
The elections are being held on four seats each from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, three each from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two from Jharkhand and one each from the northeastern states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. The voting started at 9:00 am and will go on till 4:00 pm, the counting of votes will take place at 5:00 pm.
Currently, the NDA has 91 of the 245 Rajya Sabha seats compared to 61 seats secured by the UPA, while the other opposition and non-aligned parties have coupled 68 seats in total.
A considerable majority in the Rajya Sabha elections is pivotal for the Bhartiya Janta Party to moot bills through the council of states.
