Results have been announced for four seats in Karnataka and 1 seat in Himachal Pradesh.
The Congress faced a major setback in Himachal Pradesh against the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections, which were affected by cross-voting in all three states. However, the Congress managed to secure three seats in Karnataka, while the BJP is expected to win big in Uttar Pradesh. The voting took place for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Karnataka, and one seat in Himachal Pradesh. On February 20, 41 candidates, including BJP chief J P Nadda, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan, were elected unopposed to the Upper House.
In Himachal Pradesh, there was cross-voting that resulted in the victory of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan over Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Mahajan was declared the winner by draw of lots after both candidates received 34 votes each. The result revealed that nine MLAs voted in favor of the BJP. Currently, the Congress has 40 MLAs, BJP has 25, and three are independents in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly.
There was intense drama in Uttar Pradesh, where SP chief whip Manoj Pandey resigned amid concerns of cross-voting while the polling was ongoing. Eight SP MLAs also did not attend a meeting called by Yadav on Monday. In Karnataka, five candidates were competing for the four seats, including D Kupendra Reddy from JD(S). The elected candidates are Ajay Maken, G C Chandrasekhar, and Syed Naseer Hussain (all from Congress) and Narayansa K Bhandage from the BJP.
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The election was marred by cross-voting as BJP MLA ST Somashekar voted for Maken, while another party legislator A Shivaram Hebbar abstained from voting. Somashekar stated that he voted for the Congress based on the development work carried out in his constituency. Hebbar abstained from voting based on his conscience.
In Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BJP and the main opposition SP have enough members in the assembly to send seven and three candidates to the Rajya Sabha unopposed, but the BJP nominated an eighth candidate, making the contest more interesting.
The BJP candidates are: former Union minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh, former Agra mayor Naveen Jain, and industrialist Sanjay Seth.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)