Voting for Rajya Sabha seats across 4 states begins today

Today morning, voters in 16 Rajya Sabha seats across four states – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Haryana – went to the polls to elect members of the Upper House of Parliament.

After the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced yesterday, 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Telangana were elected unopposed.

Today, however, voters will go to the polls in 16 states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Karnataka.

Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, as well as Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala, and Mukul Wasnik, will all have their fates decided at 5 p.m. when the ballots are counted.

Discontent had surfaced in the Congress party following the unveiling of Upper House nominations.

In Maharashtra, the Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi for the elections, while the NCP has selected Praful Patel. Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar of the Shiv Sena have been allowed a run in the polls.

Fearing horse-trading, the MVA has relocated all of its MLAs to a Mumbai hotel. The alliance, on the other hand, is optimistic about winning four seats in the state.

Dr. Anil Bonde, Piyush Goyal, and Dhananjay Mahadik are the BJP’s candidates from the state. Surprisingly, there will be seven candidates vying for the state’s six seats.

Uddhav Thackeray, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, expressed confidence in all four Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates to win the Rajya Sabha elections.

Two seats in Haryana will be contested in the election. Both BJP and Congress members were relocated to resorts to reduce the risk of poaching.

The BJP-JJP alliance has relocated their MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh, while the Congress leaders have been relocated to a city resort.

Ajay Maken, a senior Congress leader, has been nominated by the Congress, while Krishan Lal Panwar, a former minister, has been nominated by the BJP.

It’s worth noting that Kuldeep Bishnoi, a top state leader, is already dissatisfied with the party’s recent moves. Aside from that, another issue for the party has arisen in the form of Kartikey Sharma’s candidacy, whose father and father-in-law are former Congress officials with ties to state politics.

In Karnataka, the JD(S) has fielded Kupendra Reddy, an entrepreneur and social activist, as its first Rajya Sabha candidate.

Mansoor Ali Khan was the second candidate fielded by the Congress to take on the JD(S) and its attempt to send Kupendra Reddy to the Rajya Sabha.

Six candidates are running for four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka’s upcoming Rajya Sabha elections on June 10.

HD Kumaraswamy, a former state chief minister and leader of the Janata Dal (Secular), urged the Congress on Thursday to give JDS its second preferential votes if it truly wants to beat the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Similarly, resort politics took centre stage in Rajasthan, with Congress MLAs split between Udaipur and Jaipur.