Voting for the elections to fill the vacant 19 seats in Rajya Sabha began today. The polls to the Upper House seats from eight states were earlier scheduled to be held on March 26. However, they were deferred in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The voting started from 9.00 am and will be continued till 4.00 pm. The counting will take place at 5.00 pm.
The polling is being held for the states of Rajasthan (three seats), Gujarat (four seats), Jharkhand (two seats), Madhya Pradesh (three seats), Manipur (one seat), Meghalaya (one seat), Mizoram (one seat) and Andhra Pradesh (four seats).
In Madhya Pradesh, buses carrying Congress MLAs, left from party leader Kamal Nath’s residence, for the state Legislative Assembly in Bhopal for voting. State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also cast his vote. Meanwhile, three buses, carrying BJP MLAs, reached Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in Jaipur.
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The polling process has been marred with controversy as the Congress recently alleged that BJP was engaged in horse-trading. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had said that the Rajya Sabha elections could have been conducted two months back. However, they were postponed for “no reason because BJP’s horse-trading was not complete”.
Similarly, in Gujarat too, on June 12, a delegation of Congress leaders submitted a memorandum to Election Commission alleging “misuse and abuse of official machinery by the ruling party in the state to harass party MLAs”.
Several Congress MLAs were shifted to various resorts after three of its legislators resigned from the Gujarat Assembly.