Elections are being held on Tuesday for 15 Rajya Sabha seats in three states amid concerns of cross-voting. 41 candidates have already been elected unopposed for 56 seats. Those elected include former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J.P. Nadda, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnav and L. Murugan is involved. Elections are being held for 15 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
There are 11 candidates in the fray in Uttar Pradesh and BJP and SP have the number to send seven and three members respectively. But with Sanjay Seth as the eighth candidate of BJP, the contest has become tough. The BJP is said to be counting on additional votes from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has formed an alliance with the NDA.
BJP has appointed former Union Minister R.P.N. Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, senior state leader Amarpal Maurya, former minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra Mayor Naveen Jain have been fielded. SP has fielded actress-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
The ruling Congress in Karnataka on Monday shifted its MLAs to a private hotel. There are four Rajya Sabha seats and five candidates. From the Congress side, former Union Minister Ajay Maken, current Rajya Sabha MP Syed Nasir Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekhar is contesting the elections. Former BJP MLC Narayanasa Bhandage is contesting and Kupendra Reddy is the candidate of the BJP-JD(S) alliance.
In Himachal Pradesh, BJP has forced a contest on the only seat in the state by fielding Harsh Mahajan against Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Here Congress has 40 MLAs and BJP has 25 MLAs. The election is being seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.