Rajya Sabha polls: MLAs locked down
Amid concerns over influencing and cross-voting in Monday’s Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress has moved its MLAs from Haryana, Odisha, and Himachal Pradesh to heavily guarded resorts. Haryana MLAs were shifted to Kufri near Shimla, Himachal MLAs from Kufri to Kasauli, and Odisha MLAs to Karnataka. Ahead of the polls, Odisha’s opposition parties, BJD and Congress, issued show-cause notices to three MLAs for violating party whips.
Senior Congress leader and Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka alleged attempts to bribe party MLAs with INR 5 crore each while they stayed at a Bengaluru hotel. The claim came after Bengaluru police arrested two individuals for allegedly trying to influence legislators.
All relocated MLAs will be brought back to their respective assemblies Monday morning for voting.
Rajya Sabha elections will be held in Bihar, Haryana, and Odisha. In Odisha, BJD and Congress are backing common opposition candidate Dr. Datteswar Hota against BJP-supported independent Dilip Ray for the state’s fourth seat.
Already, 26 candidates have been elected unopposed in seven states with the BJP cornering seven of them, Congress five, Trinamool Congress four, DMK three and Shiv Sena, RPI(A), NCP, NCP(SP), AIADMK, PMK and UPPL one each. The winners include Sharad Pawar, Abhishek Singhvi, Tiruchi Siva and Vinod Tawade.
In Haryana, two seats will fall vacant as BJP MLAs Kiran Choudhry and Ram Chander Jangra complete their terms on April 9. BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia, Congress’s Karamvir Singh Boudh, and BJP-backed independent Satish Nandal are contesting, each needing 31 votes. Congress, with 37 MLAs, can secure one seat, though cross-voting remains a concern. The BJP has 48 MLAs, the Indian National Lok Dal two, and three Independents in the 90-member assembly.
In Bihar, JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said all NDA candidates, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, are expected to “win by huge margins.” Six candidates-five from the NDA and one opposition-are in the fray, including BJP president Nitin Nabin and Union minister Ram Nath Thakur aiming for a hat-trick.
