Rajya Sabha elections: As it happened | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Rajya Sabha elections: As it happened

Agencies | By, New Delhi
Jun 12, 2016 03:09 AM IST

Altogether, 58 RS seats fell vacant from 16 states over the past two months. Of these seats, 31 candidates have already won unopposed and their results will be formally announced, along with the 27 seats, on Saturday.

Voting for Rajya Sabha biennial began on Saturday morning as 27 Upper House seats from seven states went to elections.

Voting for Rajya Sabha seats began on June 11, 2016.(ANI)
Voting for Rajya Sabha seats began on June 11, 2016.(ANI)

Altogether, 58 RS seats fell vacant from 16 states over the past two months. Of these seats, 31 candidates have already won unopposed and their results will be formally announced, along with the 27 seats, on Saturday.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Check the final results here.

Moment by moment how the Rajya Sabha polls unfolded...

Warrants being issued against opposition MLAs: Congress

The BJP government in Jharkhand is getting arrest warrants issued against opposition legislators to prevent them from voting in the Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress said on Saturday.

The Raghubar Das government “is trying to strangle democracy by issuing warrants against legislators who have a right to vote”, Congress spokesman Ajay Kumar told reporters here.

“This is done at the instruction of the central government,” he said.

There was much commotion on Friday night at Medica Hospital here where Chamra Linda, a legislator from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), is being treated. Read more here

# UP BJP lawmaker accuses SP of not letting them vote

BJP legislator, Krishna Paswan called SP MLAs “goons” and accused them of not allowing the BJP lawmakers to cast vote, according to ANI.

# Verbal spat between SP and BJP legislator

In Uttar Pradesh, there was a verbal spat between Samajwadi Party MLA Hazi Zamerullah Khan and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Raghunandan Singh Badauriya over their candidates during voting.

# Polling begins in Madhya Pradesh, Ramniwas Rawat casts the first ballot

Voting for the three RS seats from Madhya Pradesh in which two BJP candidates senior journalist MJ Akbar and Anil Dave and Congress nominee Vivek Tankha are in the fray, began on Saturday with MLA Ramniwas Rawat casting the first ballot at the State legislative assembly.

After Rawat who is the Congress chief whip in the State Assembly, BJP MLA Girish Gautam cast his vote. In the polling, 228 members of the House are expected to take part.

# Polling for four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan begins

Elections to the four seats of Rajya sabha today began at the Rajasthan Assembly premises here. Leader of opposition Rameshwar Dusi cast the first vote followed by former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the assembly spokesperson said.

In the house of 200, the ruling BJP has 160 members and Congress 24. National Peoples Party has four, BSP has three, National Unionist Zamindara Party has two and seven are independents.

Union minister Venkaiah Naidu, BJP’s national Vice President Om Prakash Mathur, former RBI official Ramkumar Sharma and member of erstwhile Dungarpur royal family Harsh Vardhan Singh are the BJP candidates whereas Kamal Morarka filed nomination papers as independent candidate.

# Rajya Sabha polls for two Haryana seats begins

Voting began for two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana here today which are falling vacant in August, with three candidates including Union Minister Birender Singh in fray. The Haryana Assembly has 90 members and polling will be held between 9 AM to 4 PM today.

On Friday, the Congress had announced support for INLD-backed Independent candidate and lawyer R K Anand for one of the seat in the biennial elections being held today.

# Voting for 11 seats from UP begins in Lucknow. Total of 12 candidates in fray

Suspense remains on the fate of senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal and the outcome of polls in Karnataka, where charges of large-scale horse-trading have surfaced.

With 30 candidates from eight states already elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, voting for the remaining seats is taking place in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

Charges, counter charges in Karnataka

Amid charges and counter charges of horse trading, fierce contests are on the cards especially in Karnataka, where a sting by TV channels has indicated that parties have big stakes in the polls for the upper house.

In Karnataka, five nominees, including three from Congress and one each from the BJP and Janatal Dal-Secular (JD-S) are in the fray.

The candidates are Oscar Fernandes, Jairam Ramesh and K.C. Ramamurthy (all Congress), Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of BJP and B.M. Farooq of Janata Dal-Secular.

The contest in Karnataka is basically between Congress’s third nominee Ramamurthy and JD-S’ BM Farooq. While Ramamurthy will need 12 more votes, Farooq will need five more votes to win as his party has only 40 lawmakers in the house.

Read | RS elections: BJP tally may go up by 1 seat but minority status to remain

Suspense on fate of Kapil Sibal

In an effort to increase its own numerical strength in the Upper House, where the government lacks majority, the BJP has supported some independent candidates to ensure that the Congress is not able to win any extra seat. It has also fielded its candidates in some states to grab seats from others.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh seems to be more keen to give a strong fight to Congress nominee Kapil Sibal, who also has the support of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

“We will be indulging in strategic voting and will ensure defeat of Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party nominees,” said BJP spokesman in Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

The Congress, however, remained confident of winning the seat for former union minister Sibal from UP.

“We remain confident that both in Karnataka as well as in UP the Congress party will triumph,” party spokesman Manish Tewari said here.

Interestingly, the nomination of Preeti Mohapatra as independent candidate in Uttar Pradesh has been proposed by some BJP legislators making it clear that the saffron party does not want to give a cakewalk to Sibal.

In Uttar Pradesh 12 candidates are in the fray for the vacant 11 seats where the ruling Samajwadi Party has fielded seven candidates while the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded two. The BJP and the Congress have fielded one candidate each.

With support of Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, SP is likely to easily win all the seven seats. The BSP’s two and BJP’s one candidate would also probably sail through easily.

Polling for four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan was necessitated as no candidate withdrew their nomination. Four BJP candidates and one Independent candidate, supported by opposition Congress have filed nominations for the four seats.

Read | Parties refuse to lower guard for RS poll, leaders to keep watch on voting

Nominees

Nomination by former Union minister and business tycoon Kamal Morarka on the last day has added more flavour to the contest.

Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, BJP national vice president Om Prakash Mathur, former RBI official Ramkumar Verma and member of the erstwhile Dungarpur royal family Harsh Vardhan Singh are the BJP nominees.

In Haryana, where the BJP does not have adequate numbers to get two candidates elected, the party has nominated Union Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh as its candidate. With extra votes in hand, the BJP has supported media baron Subhash Chandra, who has filed nomination as an Independent candidate.

Senior lawyer R.K. Anand has also filed nomination in Haryana as an Independent candidate and is banking on support of Congress and opposition Indian National Lok Dal.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has nominated Anil Madhav Dave and M.J. Akbar as its two candidates for the three vacant seats.

With an eye to the third seat, BJP has fielded Vinod Gotiya, a state BJP office bearer, as an Independent candidate. This move of the BJP is seen as a ploy to thwart the election of Congress candidate Vivek Tankha, who is short of only one vote.

With eight votes short for Gotia’s victory, the BJP is aiming to garner support of BSP and Independent members.

In Jharkhand, where the BJP is assured of Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi being elected to the first seat, it has chosen its second nominee as Mahesh Poddar, an industrialist.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has fielded Basant Soren, son of its chief Shibu Soren. The Congress, which has not fielded any candidate has given support to Soren.

Two of the six Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand are getting vacant this time with BJP’s M.J. Akbar and Congress’s Dheeraj Sahu completing their respective terms.

In Uttarakhand, where the BJP’s move to dislodge the Harish Rawat government did not pay off, it has not nominated any candidate. However, its two leaders Gita Thakur and Anil Goel have filed nominations as Independents against Pradeep Tamta, the joint candidate of the Congress and PDF (Peoples Democratic Front).

Despite BJP’s efforts to win extra seats in these polls, the Congress will continue to remain the single-largest party in the 245-member House.

The biennial elections were necessitated as 55 members from 15 states are retiring between June and August. One seat each from Rajasthan and Karnataka have also been vacated -- by Anand Sharma (Congress) and Vijay Mallya (Independent), respectively -- and will also go for polls.

Thirty candidates from various political parties were already declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from their eight respective states in the absence of more contenders.

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