The Samajwadi Party won all seven Rajya Sabha seats they were contesting from Uttar Pradesh, while Congress leader Kapil Sibal also won a seat from the state on Saturday. The Bharatiya Janata Party won all four seats from Rajasthan, where it is in power. This included Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu. Congress' Pradeep Tamta won the lone seat from Uttarakhand, edging out Independent candidate Anil Goel. In Karnataka, Union Minister Nirmala Seetharaman and Congress' Jairam Ramesh, Oscar Fernandes and KC Ramamurthy were elected, according to PTI.
Union minister Birender Singh and BJP-backed Independent candidate and media baron Subhash Chandra won the elections from Haryana, PTI reported.
The polling was riddled with controversy. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA Chamra Linda was arrested on Saturday in connection with a 2013 case, even as counting for the Rajya Sabha seats began in seven states in the country. According to The Hindu, he was allegedly involved a scuffle. Meanwhile, several other MLAs admitted to cross voting. Vijay Bahadur Yadav, a BJP MLA from Gorakhpur Rural, said he voted for the Samajwadi Party candidate.
Voting for the twenty-seven seats took place on Saturday morning, amid allegations of bribes and horse-trading. The most seats up for grabs are in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, where voting for 11 new Rajya Sabha legislators is on. Thirty candidates have already been elected unopposed across eight states. Besides Uttar Pradesh, voting for four seats in both Rajasthan and Karnataka, three in Madhya Pradesh, two in Jharkhand and Haryana, and one in Uttarakhand is on.
Earlier in the week, the Election Commission rejected calls to cancel the election after Karnataka was mired in a cash-for-votes controversy following a sting operation by a news channel. In Uttar Pradesh, Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who is reportedly supported by Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, contested a seat. The BJP had proposed the nomination of independent candidate Preeti Mohapatra in the state, Firstpost reported. Twelve candidates were up for the 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Five candidates in Karnataka included three from the state’s ruling party, Congress, and one from the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular). Four BJP candidates were in the fray in Rajasthan, including Venkaiah Naidu, Om Prakash Mathur, Ram Kumar Sharma and Harsh Vardhan Singh. The fifth candidate in Rajasthan was supported by the Congress.
Some of the legislators seeking re-election to the House included Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Suresh Prabhu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Venkaiah Naidu. BSP votes are likely to affect seats in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh, besides Uttar Pradesh.
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