Rajya Sabha election results: Congress sweeps Rajasthan; BJP wins 3 in Karnataka and Cong bags 1

BJP won three out of the four seats in the Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka while the Congress bagged the fourth seat.  Nirmala Sitharaman, CT Ravi and Jaggesh won the three seats for the BJP while the fourth seat was won by Jairam Ramesh from Congress.

The counting of votes for the Rajya Sabha elections was delayed on Friday in Maharashtra and Haryana over alleged violation of rules, officials said.

The counting was held up in Maharashtra after opposition BJP alleged three MLAs of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)--Cabinet ministers Jitendra Awhad (NCP) and Yashomati Thakur (Congress), besides Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande violated the model code for voting.

"We have filed an appeal before the Election Commission of India, seeking that their votes be held invalid," said a state BJP leader.

The BJP has alleged that Awhad and Thakur handed over their ballots to their party agents instead of only showing them the ballots, while Kande showed his ballot to two different agents.

The counting has been put on hold in Haryana for identical reasons.

The BJP and the Independent candidate backed by it have urged the Election Commission to cancel the votes of two Congress MLAs.

(PTI)

BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma writes to Election Commission of India, demanding cancellation of votes of Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhry & BB Batra, due to "violation of the secrecy of votes in the Conduct of Election Rules 1961"

(Reported by Puneet) 

After casting his vote in favour of Congress in Rajya Sabha polls, Bharatiya Tribal Party legislator Rajkumar Roat on Friday targeted its own party chief Velaram Ghoghra, saying he has become "old" to understand the issues. BTP legislators, Roat and Ramprasad Dindor voted in support of the ruling Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls on Friday going against their party chief who had issued whip to its MLAs to not take part in the election process.

"I would not like to say about our party state president. Now, he has become old and it is likely that he could not understand. But, our decision is for the benefit of tribals and people of the region. On the basis of this, we have decided to vote in the favour of the Congress candidates," Roat told reporters after casting vote. 

He said that the decision was taken collectively. In Rajasthan, the BTP has two MLAs who represent the tribal constituencies of Sagwada and Chaurasia.

The counting of votes for the four seats will start at 5 pm.

The ruling party in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena claimed that two MLAs of AIMIM had voted for its party's candidate Sanjay Pawar. 

Hours after a single bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday rejected Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's plea seeking temporary release from jail to enable him to cast his vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, voting for which is underway, another bench of the high court refused to entertain his petition. A single bench presided over by Justice Bharati Dangre refused an immediate hearing to Malik saying there was no question of sending him for casting his vote with a police escort when permission for the same had been refused by the special court. Voting for six seats of Rajya Sabha from the state, which began at the Vidhan Bhavan here at 9 am, will continue till 4 pm. Malik, an NCP leader, is currently in jail in a money laundering case. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 23 this year in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

All 200 Rajasthan MLAs had cast their vote for the Rajya Sabha elections by Friday afternoon. The counting of votes for the four seats will start at 5 pm. Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria admitted that one BJP MLA has cross-voted, which might make the victory of Independent candidate Subhash Chandra difficult. "How can we win two seats when we had the votes to win just one seat? We lost nothing. As far as cross-voting by one MLA is concerned, the party will take action for violating the whip," he told reporters while leaving the assembly after polling. BJP state president Satish Poonia said the party's high command has been informed about the cross-voting.

The JD(S) leadership on Friday claimed at least two disgruntled MLAs did not vote in favour of its candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from Karnataka, defying the party's diktat, with one of its legislators admitting he did so since he "loved" voting for the Congress nominee.

The regional party's Kolar MLA K Srinivas Gowda cast his vote for the Congress candidate, while Gubbi MLA S R Srinivas put a blank ballot paper into the box, which will be counted as invalid, JD(S) legislature party leader H D Kumaraswamy said, fuming at his colleagues.

While Gowda accepted he voted for the Congress candidate, Srinivas rejected Kumaraswamy's claim and insisted he voted for his party's pick.

Independent legislator Balraj Kundu decided to abstain, saying the ruling BJP has been hit by scams while the Congress has "insulted" people by fielding outsider Ajay Maken.

Reports Puneet

A total of 278 Maharashtra MLAs cast their votes till around 1.30 on Friday in the election for six Rajya Sabha seats in the state, where a close contest is being played out between the ruling Shiv Sena and the opposition BJP for the sixth seat. 

278 MLAs have cast their votes in Mumbai till 2 pm. 

Polling concludes in Harayana for Rajya Sabha polls. Counting to start at 5 pm. 

Mumbai: 260 MLAs have cast their vote in Mumbai till 1 pm 

Reports Sandeep

The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), a constituent of the ruling alliance in Haryana, has demanded from the ECI to annul the votes of two Congress MLAs -- BB Batra and Kiran Chaudhary. JJP said that the MLAs didn't show their ballot papers to the authorised agents after exercising their franchise. 

Reports Puneet

Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Kumaraswamy on Friday alleged "horse-trading" in the Karnataka Rajya Sabha elections claiming that Congress leader Siddaramaiah was pressurising JDS MLAs to not vote for their own party but that of the candidate of the grand old party.

Karnataka JD(S) MLA K Srinivasa Gowda on Friday said that he voted in favour of Congress as the polling for the Rajya Sabha for four Rajya Sabha seats is underway.

Several Haryana MLAs cast their votes in the first hours of voting for the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state on Friday with Congress MLAs, who were lodged in a resort in Chattisgarh's Raipur due to poaching fears, reaching Chandigarh for the exercise.

A plea has been mentioned before the Supreme Court on Friday seeking a stay on the declaration of the Rajya Sabha elections result, in view of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs who had defected to the Congress Party.

• Reportedly, in the Rajya Sabha elections which is underway on 16 seats, BJP' Shobha Rani Kushwaha voted for Pramod Tiwari of Congress. Shobha Rani's husband BL Kushwaha is currently in jail. 
• BJP MLA Siddhi Kumari had to cast her vote to independent candidate Subhash Chandra, but she mistakenly cast vote to Ghanshyam Tiwari.
• BJP MLA Kailash Meena from Dag had shown his vote to his agent after voting. Congress agent Govind Singh Dotsara also claimed to have seen his vote in his favour. Now the decision will be taken after watching the video recording of CCTV and Election Commission.

- Reports Manish Bhattacharya 

The Bombay High Court on Friday rejected Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik's petition seeking release from jail here to enable him to cast his vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, polling for which is underway.

A large number of supporters have started gathering outside the Vidhan Bhavan for Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Imran Pratapgarhi and are praying for his victory.

Reports Jayprakash Singh

Nearly 40 per cent of the votes for the Rajya Sabha elections have been cast by 10.30 am in Rajasthan. The voting started at 9 am in the assembly building and will continue till 4 pm. 

50% of polling has been completed in the first 1.5 hours. 143 MLAs exercised their right to vote. More than 60 BJP MLAs and 20 Congress MLAs have cast their votes for Rajya Sabha elections: Sources

Voting is underway in the Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from Karnataka on Friday, as suspense continues over the outcome of the fourth seat, for which all three political parties are contenders, despite none of them having adequate number of votes to win it.

Polling for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana is underway with Congress MLAs, who were lodged in a resort in Chattisgarh's Raipur due to fear of poaching, on their way to Chandigarh.

Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states is underway amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts.

The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has decided to vote in favour of the Congress candidate in fray for the Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra being held today. 

Members of Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the Assemblies of States and Union territories in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

The MVA has shifted all its MLAs to a hotel in Mumbai fearing horse-trading. The alliance, however, is expressing confidence in bagging all the six seats from the state. While the BJP-JJP alliance has lodged their MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh, the Congress leaders were moved to a resort in the city.

All 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed last Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently.

The polling to elect the members of the Upper House of the Parliament on 16 Rajya Sabha seats spread across four states will take place today amid speculations of horse-trading and fears of cross-voting.