Following voting for the Rajya Sabha polls in 8 states on Friday, 20 June, the 19 seats up for grabs were filled. The BJP won 8 seats, while Congress and YSRC won 4 seats each.
The Congress has won 2 seats from Rajasthan in Rajya Sabha elections while the BJP has won 1 seat, reported ANI. KC Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi of the Congress and Rajendra Gehlot of the BJP were elected to the upper house without any cross-voting.
Meanwhile, in Madhya Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party has won 2 seats and Congress has won 1 seat. BJP's Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki and Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh have been elected from MP, PTI reported citing officials.
In Andhra Pradesh, ruling YSR Congress has bagged all four seats.
The candidates of the ruling BJP in Manipur, the MNF in Mizoram and Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) won the single Rajya Sabha seats in each state, IANS reported,
In Gujarat, 3 BJP candidates, Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramila Bara and Narhari Amin, and 1 Congress candidate, Shaktisinh Gohil, were declared winners.
Jharkhand had 2 Rajya Sabha seats which were won by ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren and ruling party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Shibu Soren whule the other seat was won by BJP’s Deepak Prakash.
The contest was for four seats each from Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two from Jharkhand, and one each from Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya.
The most crucial of these contests were in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. In the former, the Congress was rocked by resignations of its MLAs. in Rajasthan, the Congress had recently blamed the BJP for attempts to destabilise its government.
Here’s how the contests looked in different states:
Gujarat
The Congress had fielded Shakti Sinh Gohil and Bharat Sinh Solanki, while the ruling BJP had given tickets to Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin. With the resignations of Congress MLAs, the BJP was expected to win three out of the four seats in the state.
Rajasthan
The Congress had put forward the names of KC Venugopal and state general secretary Neeraj Dangi, while the BJP has fielded Rajendra Gehlot and Omkar Singh Lakhawat.
Madhya Pradesh
The ruling BJP had fielded Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki and the Congress had proposed veteran Digvijaya Singh and Phool Singh Baraiya. The two parties had fielded two candidates each for the three seats.
Result: Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki from BJP and Digvijaya Singh from Congress have won.
Manipur
The election in Manipur comes two days after the N Biren Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government received a big jolt following nine MLAs, including three BJP legislators, withdrawing their support to the BJP-led government.
The Opposition Congress has pressed for a no-confidence motion against the ruling government. The BJP has fielded Leisemba Sanajaoba, while the Congress candidate is T Mangi Babu.
Andhra Pradesh
With 151 MLAs in the 175-member Assembly, Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress was looking at a comfortable win leaving a slim chance for the Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The YSR Congress had fielded Deputy Chief Minister Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao, realtor A Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Reliance Industries Senior Group president Parimal Nathwani.
Jharkhand
The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance had fielded Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren and the Congress’ Shahzada Anwar, while the BJP had nominated its state unit president Deepak Prakash.
Meghalaya
The fight was between the ruling National People’s Party candidate Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi and the Congress’ Kennedy Cornelius Khyiem.
In Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh, the candidates had been elected unopposed earlier.
Arunachal Pradesh
BJP leader Nabam Rebia was elected unopposed to the single Rajya Sabha seat from Arunachal Pradesh.
Karnataka
All the candidates – former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, BJP candidates Iranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti – had been declared elected unopposed.
The Rajya Sabha polls for 55 seats were scheduled to take place on 26 March, but the Election Commission had to defer them because of the coronavirus crisis.
Elaborate arrangements had been made for the voting process to ensure social distancing guidelines. Every MLA had to be screened for body temperature and is supposed to use a mask.
Currently, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 91 of the 245 Rajya Sabha seats, while the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has 61. The other Opposition and non-aligned parties together have 68 seats. A majority for the NDA in the Upper House would translate to easy passage of Bills in both the Houses in the near future.
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