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Polls are being held for 20 Rajya Sabha seats, in the first major election amidst the Covid-19 pandemic in India. While four seats each are up for grabs in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, three each are going to polls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two from Jharkhand and one each from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
Rajya Sabha elections are different from Lok Sabha elections, as in RS polls, it is members of the electoral college who elect the candidates. Almost 1,000 legislators will be voting to elect candidates for the 20 seats that go to polls today.
In Gujarat, the political climate has been turbulent ever since eight Congress legislators resigned after the announcement of poll dates. This forced the Congress to resort to ‘resort politics’ where it housed its legislators at a resort in Rajasthan to prevent more of them from being enticed or coerced to jump ship.
The strength of the Gujarat Assembly has been reduced to 172 and each candidate needs 35 first preference votes to win. The BJP has fielded three candidates; Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara, and Narhari Amin, and therefore it needs 105 votes. But currently the party’s strength stands at 103, making it just two votes short. Meanwhile, the Congress has fielded two candidates; Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki, meaning it needs 70 votes. But with a strength of 65, it is five votes short. This makes two legislators from the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), one from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, virtual kingmakers in this nail-biter of an election.
Meanwhile, the face-off is intense in Madhya Pradesh with Congressman-tuned-BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia going up against Digvijay Singh. The total strength of the MP assembly is 206; BJP has 107 and Congress has 92 members. Each candidate needs 52 first preference votes. Therefore, BJP can easily win two out of the three seats. For the third seat, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and independents could end up playing kingmakers.
In Rajasthan, Congress candidate Neeraj Dangi and KC Venugopal are likely to have a smooth sail. But the BJP has fielded Rajendra Gehlot and Onkar Singh Lakhawat. The party could win one seat as they need 51 votes per seat and have 72 members.
Manipur is also in for some high drama given last minute resignations by three BJP MLAs; S Subhashchandra Singh, TT Haokip, and Samuel Jendai. Meanwhile, Y Joykumar Singh, N. Kayisii, L Jayanta Kumar Singh, and Letpao Haokip from the NPP, T Robindro Singh from the TMC, and Ashab Uddin (Independent) have also withdrawn support from the BJP. BJP and allies previously had 39 out of 60 seats, but with these 9 MLAs leaving, BJP no longer has a majority. Many speculate that Congress would make a resurgent comeback under former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.
Meanwhile, in Andhra Pradesh the YSR Congress is expected to win all four seats given how it has 151 members in a 175-member house.
In Jharkhand, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Sorenis likely to retain his own seat, but the second seat will see stiff competition between Jharkhand BJP president Deepak Prakash and Congress’s Shahzada Anwar.