Elections for 15 Rajya Sabha seats in three states UP, Himachal, Karnataka are being held on Tuesday amid concerns of cross voting.
Already 41 candidates have been elected unopposed for 56 seats. BJP Chief JP Nadda, Former Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and L. Murugan is among the elected people.
11 candidates are in the fray in Uttar Pradesh. BJP has seven members and SP has three members to send. Sanjay Seth is the eighth candidate of BJP, due to which this contest has become thorny. It is believed that the BJP is banking on additional votes from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which is in alliance with the NDA.
BJP from its side in the field former Union Minister R.P.N. Singh, senior state leader Amarpal Maurya, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), former Agra mayor Naveen Jain and former MLA Sadhana Singh have been cited.
On the other hand, SP has fielded retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan, actress-MP Jaya Bachchan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
In Karnataka, the ruling Congress on Monday shifted its MLAs to a private hotel. There are four Rajya Sabha seats and five candidates. Current Rajya Sabha MP Syed Nasir Hussain, former Union Minister Ajay Maken and G.C. Chandrasekhar has been brought down. The BJP-JD(S) alliance candidate is Kupendra Reddy and former BJP MLC Narayanasa Bhandage is contesting.
BJP has strengthened the contest by fielding Harsh Mahajan against Abhishek Manu Singhvi of Congress in Himachal Pradesh’s only seat in the state. Here BJP has 25 and Congress has 40 MLAs. For Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, this election is being seen as a prestige battle.