New Delhi: Voting for 19 seats in the Rajya Sabha concluded in eight states on Friday. The results were on the expected lines, barring Gujarat which although keenly contested, ended with BJP sweeping three seats out of the four.
The ruling YSR Congress bagged all the four Rajya Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh and seasoned campaigners like Digvijaya Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Shibu Soren had an easy sailing as the results of the polls to the Upper House arrived.
The lone seat in Manipur went to the BJP candidate Leisemba Sanajaoba in a closely-fought election after the Manipur assembly speaker and BJP legislator Yumnam Khemchand Singh permitted three of seven rebel ruling party MLAs to vote. The three legislators were granted permission only after they pledged their support to the BJP candidate.
Also read: RS Polls: Manipur Speaker Allows Only Those Rebel Congress MLAs Who Support BJP to Vote
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won two seats, including one for Jyotiraditya Scindia who had switched over to the party after being denied a Congress ticket, and the Congress bagged one seat which was won by senior leader Digvijaya Singh.
In an interesting development, the BJP claimed that two Bahujan Samaj Party legislators Sanjeev Kushwah and Rambai Singh, and the lone Samajwadi Party MLA Rajesh Shukla supported BJP in the polls. The Congress had wanted to make a contest of the polls for three seats by fielding a fourth candidate. It had hoped it would get the support of some of the rebel MLAs, independents, and the legislators from the BSP and SP, which had supported the Kamal Nath government until it fell.
The central leadership of BSP and SP did not comment on the shift of their legislators to the BJP, but unofficially said that it did not reflect their central policies.
In Rajasthan, the Congress won two seats, K.C. Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi, as expected, while the BJP bagged one. Rajendra Gehlot of the BJP won comfortably while BJP’s second candidate Onkar Singh Lakhawat was defeated. The polls in the north-western state was preceded by high drama as the ruling Congress alleged horse-trading ahead of the elections, and transported all its MLAs to different resorts.
With this win, the number of Congress’s Rajya Sabha MPs from Rajasthan has increased to three, while the remaining 7 are held by the BJP.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won one seat in Jharkhand so did the BJP.
JMM supremo Shibu Soren and BJP state unit president Deepak Prakash won the two seats in Jharkhand. Congress candidate Shahzada Anwar finished third by bagging 18 votes. This will be Soren’s third term as a Rajya Sabha member. Soren, whose JMM now governs Jharkhand, had also served as a Union minister. It will be Prakash’s maiden term in the Upper House of parliament.
In Andhra Pradesh, deputy chief minister Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, industrialist Parimal Nathwani and realtor Ayodhya Rami Reddy of the YSRC were elected with 38 votes each. The opposition Telugu Desam Party, which had forced the contest despite not having the numbers, lost badly, with its nominee Varla Ramaiah polling only 17 votes against its technical strength of 23 in the assembly.
The candidates of the ruling alliances won in Meghalaya and Mizoram.
BJP MLAs stand in a queue to cast their votes for Rajya Sabha polls, at Jharkhand Assembly in Ranchi, Friday, June 19, 2020. Photo: PTI
As many as 61 vacancies are to be filled in the Rajya Sabha. Only 19 went for polls as others were elected unopposed from their states.
Social distancing was followed and masked legislators were only allowed entry after thermal screening. As a precautionary measure, the Election Commission gave individual pens to the legislators for marking their votes. Two legislators in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan who were in quarantine turned up to vote in PPE gear.
While many kept their eyes on the Manipur battle, especially after seven MLAs rebelled against the ruling BJP and formed their own front, it was Gujarat that kept up the intrigue till the end.
The state was witness to the closest contest between two parties. Counting of votes for four seats in Gujarat began after a four-hour delay as the Congress demanded that the Election Commission invalidate two BJP votes on different grounds.
Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani said the Congress has sought cancellation of votes cast by BJP MLA Kesrisinh Solanki and minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama. A senior official told PTI that the EC observer rejected the opposition party’s objections and referred the matter to EC’s Delhi office for the final decision.
The Congress objected to Chudasama casting his vote on the ground that his election was annulled by the Gujarat high court last month. The Supreme Court has stayed that order. As for Solanki’s vote, the party claimed that an unauthorised person had accompanied him inside the polling booth.
In the end, BJP which had fielded Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramila Bara and Narhari Amin, bagged all three, and the Congress, just one. The party had fielded Shaktisinh Gohil, who won, and Bharatsinh Solanki, who did not.
Congress, notably, had been well placed to win two of the four seats but eight of its legislators have resigned from the party since March, when the Election Commission announced the Upper House polls. This brought the party’s strength down to 65 in the assembly, five short of winning two seats through the preferential voting system in the Rajya Sabha polls.
(With PTI inputs)