News Analysis India

Tag: Rajya Sabha

  • Maharashtra RS polls: BJP wins 3 of 6 seats in major setback to ruling Sena-NCP-Cong alliance

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: In a major setback to Maharashtra’s ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, the BJP on Saturday won three of the six Rajya Sabha seats in the state, even as the ruling combine questioned the eight-hour delay in counting of votes.

    The winners include BJP candidates Union minister Piyush Goyal and former state minister Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’ Imran Pratapgarhi also won the fiercely-fought elections.

    The contest was for the sixth seat the BJP had fielded former MP Dhananjay Mahadik and the Shiv Sena candidate was Sanjay Pawar, who lost. Mahadik and Pawar hail from Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.

    The high-stake battle for the sixth turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and BJP trading charges, even approaching the Election Commission.

    “Elections are contested not just for the fight, but the victory.bJai Maharashtra,” tweeted BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, whose refusal to have a consensus candidates for the Rajya Sabha led to elections in the state after 23 years.

    The counting of votes started after an eight-hour delay amid complaints of cross voting and rules violation by the BJP and the ruling alliance.bBoth BJP and the Shiv Sena approached the Election Commission, alleging cross voting and seeking disqualification of votes.bThe poll panel directed the Rajya Sabha election returning officer of Maharashtra to reject the vote cast by Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande, after which the counting of votes got underway.

  • Maharashtra RS polls: BJP bags 3 of 6 seats in major setback to ruling Sena-NCP-Cong alliance

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: In a major setback to Maharashtra’s ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, the BJP on Saturday won three of the six Rajya Sabha seats in the state, even as the ruling combine questioned the eight-hour delay in counting of votes.

    The winners include BJP candidates Union minister Piyush Goyal and former state minister Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’ Imran Pratapgarhi also won the fiercely-fought elections.

    The contest was for the sixth seat the BJP had fielded former MP Dhananjay Mahadik and the Shiv Sena candidate was Sanjay Pawar, who lost. Mahadik and Pawar hail from Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.

    The high-stake battle for the sixth turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and BJP trading charges, even approaching the Election Commission.

    “Elections are contested not just for the fight, but the victory.bJai Maharashtra,” tweeted BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, whose refusal to have a consensus candidates for the Rajya Sabha led to elections in the state after 23 years.

    The counting of votes started after an eight-hour delay amid complaints of cross voting and rules violation by the BJP and the ruling alliance.bBoth BJP and the Shiv Sena approached the Election Commission, alleging cross voting and seeking disqualification of votes.bThe poll panel directed the Rajya Sabha election returning officer of Maharashtra to reject the vote cast by Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande, after which the counting of votes got underway.

  • Haryana RS polls: BJP’s Krishan Panwar, Independent candidate win, Congress’ Ajay Maken loses

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH The BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, backed by the saffron party and its ally JJP, have won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, officials said early Saturday, after the counting of votes which was delayed by hours over allegation of violation of rules. Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken did not get enough votes.

    According to a senior Election Commission official here, Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and six transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29. Congress MLA and the party’s authorised polling agent BB Batra said while the party’s Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-voted, the vote of another party MLA was declared invalid.

    The counting of votes began past midnight Friday after the Election Commission gave the go-ahead. The counting was held up after the BJP and an Independent candidate backed by it had alleged violation of rules and demanded the votes of two Congress MLAs be declared invalid. Election Commission sources in Delhi said the demand was rejected.

    Panwar and Sharma had written to the EC, alleging Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhary and B B Batra showed their ballot papers to unauthorised persons after marking them and that the episodes were recorded by cameras.

    The Congress had also approached the Election Commission accusing the BJP of trying to defeat the process of free and fair election and demanded immediate declaration of results.

    89 of a total of 90 MLAs in Haryana had cast their votes while Independent MLA Balraj Kundu had abstained from voting.

  • Rajya Sabha polls: EC gives go-ahead for counting of votes in Maharashtra, Haryana

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission Friday night directed Rajya Sabha election returning officers of Haryana and Maharashtra to go ahead with the counting of votes which was held up following complaints about violation of rules.

    The poll panel also directed the returning officer of Maharashtra to reject the vote cast by Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande.

    The top brass of the EC went through detailed reports submitted by the returning officers of the two states, including video footage, before giving the go-ahead for counting, officials said.

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

    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 was 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 in the state.

    BJP nominee Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma shot off a missive to the EC, alleging Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhary and B B Batra showed their ballot papers to unauthorised persons after marking them and that the episodes were “duly captured” on cameras.

    The Congress has, meanwhile, approached the Election Commission accusing the BJP of trying to defeat the process of free and fair election to the Rajya Sabha in Haryana and demanded immediate declaration of results.

  • RS polls: BJP suspends Rajasthan MLA for voting in favour of Congress candidate

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: The BJP on Friday suspended its Rajasthan MLA Shobharani Kushwah for cross-voting in favour of Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari in the Rajya Sabha elections.

    Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria issued an order stating Kushwah voted for Tiwari despite a whip and that she was being suspended from the BJP’s primary membership.

    In the letter, Kataria also asked the MLA to clarify why she voted against the whip.

    BJP state president Satish Poonia said the party high command has been informed about the matter.

    The Congress fielded three candidates for the four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan, while the BJP fielded one, besides supporting an independent candidate.

  • Haryana Cong MLAs reach Delhi from Raipur, to arrive in Chandigarh hours before RS polls Friday

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Congress MLAs who were lodged in a resort in Chattisgarh’s Raipur reached Delhi Thursday evening and are expected to arrive here Friday morning to cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha elections, sources said.

    The ruling BJP-JJP MLAs remained lodged at a resort here for the second day as both sides braced for a keen contest on one of the two seats going to the polls.

    #WATCH | Haryana Congress MLAs arrive in Delhi, from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/MT4jNPiox8
    — ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2022
    In a late-evening development, lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Singh Chautala declared his support to Kartikeya Sharma, who has entered the fray as an Independent candidate backed by the BJP-JJP combine and most Independents.

    The BJP has fielded former minister Krishan Lal Panwar while Ajay Maken is the Congress nominee. The Congress had shifted its MLAs to Raipur a week ago fearing poaching of its legislators.

    Sources said they left the resort there on Thursday evening and reached Delhi. They are expected to reach Chandigarh in the morning. After reaching Chandigarh, they will have breakfast at Hooda’s residence here and proceed from there to cast their votes, sources said.

    Speaking to reporters in Delhi, senior Congress leader Vivek Bansal, who is the party’s Haryana affairs incharge, exuded confidence that Ajay Maken will win comfortably.

    Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda also said the party candidate will win comfortably.

    Senior party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had been in Delhi for the past few days, reached here on Thursday evening. It is learnt that both Hooda and party leader Kuldeep Bishnoi reached here in the same flight from Delhi.

    Earlier, Bishnoi, who is the MLA from Adampur in Hisar, did not go to Raipur as he was reportedly upset with the party for ignoring him in the recent reshuffle in its state unit. He had lobbied for the post of the state unit chief, which went to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan.

    Another senior leader, Kiran Choudhary, too, did not go to Raipur reportedly due to health reasons. “We have got sufficient numbers and our candidate will win comfortably with 31 votes,” Hooda had told PTI on Wednesday.

    The BJP-JJP too had shifted their MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh. They are attending a “training session” in connection with the voting process, Haryana BJP chief O P Dhankar had said.

    BJP’s senior leaders, including Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Dhankar, too had joined them.

    While the BJP with 40 MLAs has sufficient votes to win one seat, the contest has spiced up for the second seat with the entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma. He is also supported by most Independents and Gopal Kanda, lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party. A candidate needs 31 votes to win the elections.

    Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Singh Chautala on Thursday declared his support to Sharma after a meeting of his party.

    Replying to a question, Abhay Singh Chautala said the media baron’s brother Manu Sharma, who had helped his father in the past, approached him for support. Now, by supporting Kartikeya Sharma, he is repaying the debt, he said.

    Chautala said there is no question of supporting the Congress, “which has looted the country”. “For me, there is also no question of voting for the BJP candidate as the party pursued anti-farmer policies,” he said.

    He said if he abstains from voting, then it would mean benefitting the Congress candidate in the fray, which he can never do.

    The INLD leader also lashed out at Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saying he can go to “any extent to serve his political interests”.

    Independent MLA Balraj Kundu, who is yet to make his stand clear on whom he will support, was on Thursday evening approached by Sharma’s father and former Union minister Venod Sharma, who sought support for his son.

    Venod, who had also remained a minister in the erstwhile Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government, had floated his own outfit Jan Chetna Party. The media baron’s father-in-law Kuldeep Sharma is a senior Congress leader and a former speaker of the state Assembly.

    On Thursday, Balraj Kundu told reporters that he will reveal his strategy on Friday.

    Kundu took a dig at the BJP, saying its leaders used to take potshots at the Congress for lodging their legislators in a resort over fears of poaching but now they too have done the same thing. “Why the BJP and the JJP are lodging their MLAs in a resort here. One thing is clear from this that both outfits don’t have faith in their MLAs and they fear cross-voting,” he said.

    Haryana Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer for the polls R K Nandal said on Thursday the polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm. The votes will be counted soon thereafter.

    The votes will be marked by a special pen provided by the Election Commission. Each MLA after casting his vote will hand over the pen to the officer deputed by the poll body, Nandal told reporters.

    Nandal said that Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer and one central observer, who is Manipur’s Chief Electoral Officer, will be present to oversee the poll process.

    In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 40 MLAs while the Congress has 31.

    The JJP, which is an ally of the BJP, has 10 legislators while the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party have one each and seven are independents.

    Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana will fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring.

  • Ensure your vote doesn’t turn invalid due to some mistake: Fadnavis tells party MLAs on RS polls eve

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: On the eve of elections to six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday held a meeting here with the MLAs of his party, where he advised them to ensure that their votes do not turn invalid due to some mistake.

    The former chief minister was speaking to the BJP MLAs at a hotel. “You have been instructed on how to exercise the preferential voting for the Rajya Sabha. You will have to ensure that your vote will not become invalid due to some mistake,” the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly said.

    “We have told you how to vote and you should do it accordingly,” he added.

    Union Railway Minister and election in-charge for the BJP Ashwini Vaishnav was also present at this meeting.

    Fadnavis, who tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday, days after being found infected, joined the meeting and addressed the MLAs.

    After more than two decades, Maharashtra will witness a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls as there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats.

    Polling will be held at the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex, here between 9 am and 4 pm.

    Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde, Dhananjay Mahadik (BJP), Praful Patel (NCP), Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar (Shiv Sena) and Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress) are in the fray for the six seats of the Upper House of Parliament.

    The contest is for the sixth seat – between BJP’s Mahadik and Sena’s Pawar. Every vote has become crucial after BJP decided to field its third candidate in the election.

    The BJP has 106 MLAs in the lower house of the Maharashtra legislature while it claimed to have support of some independent and small parties as well.

  • Despite numbers not in its favour, Oppn likely to put up joint candidate for presidential poll

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The opposition is likely to put up a joint candidate for the July 18 presidential election despite not having numbers on its side and consultations in this regard have already begun.

    Sources said that Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has reached out to leaders of some opposition parties and sought their views for a joint opposition candidate who can be fielded.

    Some opposition parties are of the view that they should not give a walkover to the ruling dispensation but put up a fight, the sources said.

    CPI Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam said the Congress had reached out to him to discuss a “common candidate”.

    “Mallikarjun Khargeji called and consulted about a common candidate for the presidential election. I told him that the CPI would support a common candidate with secular credentials and progressive outlook. He replied that Madam Soniaji and the Congress Party also have the same position,” Viswam said in a tweet.

    “Consultations for the presidential election have begun among various opposition parties,” a senior opposition leader told PTI, adding that once a consensus is arrived at, a joint candidate may be put up.

    The BJP-led NDA is comfortably placed to win the presidential election with its vote share touching the 50 per cent mark of the total electors.

    While there are 776 MPs of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, each having 700 votes, there are as many as 4033 legislators in states with different votes who will also elect Ram Nath Kovind’s successor.

    Though the final list of electors will be notified after the bye-elections to three Lok Sabha seats and the Rajya Sabha polls to 16 seats, the NDA has 440 MPs in its favour while the opposition UPA has around 180 MPs, besides 36 MPs of Trinamool Congress who normally support the opposition candidate.

    The Congress and the BJP are likely to win six more Rajya Sabha seats in the June 10 election and the UPA partners may bag three seats more.

    According to rough calculations, the NDA has around 5,35,000 votes out of a total of 10,86,431 votes of all electors. This includes 3,08,000 votes with the support of its MPs along with that of its allies.

    The NDA candidate may get the support of some regional parties including the AIADMK, the BJD and the YSRCP for its candidate in the presidential poll. Among the states, the BJP has the maximum of 56,784 votes from Uttar Pradesh where it has 273 MLAs. Each MLA in Uttar Pradesh has the maximum vote of 208.

    The NDA will get its second-highest votes among states from Bihar where with 127 MLAs, it will get 21,971 votes as each legislator has 173 votes, followed by 18,375 votes from Maharashtra where it has 105 MLAs and each has 175 votes.

    With 131 MLAs, the NDA will get 17,161 votes from Madhya Pradesh, 16,464 votes of 112 MLAs from Gujarat and 15,982 votes of its 122 MLAs in Karnataka.

    The UPA, on the other hand, has a little over 1,50,000 votes from among its MPs and will get around the same number of votes from its legislators in states.

    Opposition candidates in the past too have been getting a little more than 3 lakh votes in the previous elections for the highest post in the country. The value of the vote of a Member of Parliament has gone down to 700 from 708 in the presidential polls this time due to the absence of a legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.

    The value of the vote of an MP in a presidential election is based on the number of elected members in legislative assemblies of states and union territories, including Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.

    Election will be held on July 18 to elect incumbent Kovind’s successor, the Election Commission announced on Thursday. The nominations can be filed after the issue of notification on June 15 till June 29, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told a press conference.

  • RS polls: Uddhav, Pawar, Kharge meet MVA legislators

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: In a show of solidarity ahead of June 10 election for six Rajya Sabha vacancies from Maharashtra, Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge held a meeting with MLAs of the three parties here on Tuesday.

    As leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Sena, NCP and Congress held parleys with Independent MLAs and smaller parties to cobble up support, the Sena also decided to shift its legislators to a city hotel to thwart attempts of poaching.

    “The chief minister said during the meeting that our victory is certain and asked the legislators of the three parties to stay united,” Sena MLA and spokesperson Sunil Prabhu told PTI in the evening.

    MLAs of smaller parties like the Bachhu Kadu-led Prahar and Independent legislators also attended the meeting, Prabhu added. This was the first such meeting of the MVA MLAs and its leaders after the formation of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in 2019.

    In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly (which forms the electorate for the Rajya Sabha polls), smaller parties have 16 MLAs, while the number of Independents is 13.

    With one Assembly seat lying vacant and two NCP MLAs (Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik) in jail, the quota of votes per winning candidate is 41.

    Mumbai | Ahead of June 10 RS polls, meeting of Maha Vikas Aghadi partners begins- Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP discuss the strategy. Maharashtra CM & Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge among others present at Trident pic.twitter.com/JqPLg63saI
    — ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2022
    A total of seven candidates — three candidates of the BJP, two of the Shiv Sena and one each of NCP and Congress — are in the fray for six seats, which necessitated election for Rajya Sabha after more than two decades in Maharashtra.

    The contest for the sixth seat will be between the BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Sena’s Sanjay Pawar. The BJP has asked its MLAs to come to Mumbai in the next two days.

    AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the MVA should contact his party if they need support while the Samajwadi Party has sought Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s clarification on the Shiv Sena’s language of Hindutva and the government’s secular credentials.

    All 55 legislators of the Sena have been summoned to Mumbai and they will stay together till the polls on June 10, a Sena leader said.

    “We were at ‘The Retreat’ (at Madh island in northwest Mumbai) and all our ministers too were present there. That was part of our strategy. We will be moving to hotel Trident (in south Mumbai) today,” Sunil Prabhu had said earlier in the day.

    The Trident is a stone’s throw from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly where voting will take place.

    Senior Shiv Sena leader and minister Anil Parab said talks are being held with all parties, be it the AIMIM and Samajwadi Party, who have extended their support to the MVA government.

    The AIMIM and the SP each have two MLAs in the House. Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh also met Parab.

    Shaikh told reporters that the SP has written a letter to CM Thackeray, asking him to clarify the government’s secular credentials.

    “The Common Minimum Programme on which the government was formed and the language of Hindutva spoken by the chief minister in his speech. There is so much difference (between CMP and the Hindutva language). So (the CM should) clarify whether the government is secular or if Sena’s Hindutva credible or the BJP’s,” Shaikh said.

    What has the government done in the last 2.5 years? The minority commission and the Haj Committee have not been formed until now, Shaikh said. When asked whether the Samajwadi Party is with the MVA, Shaikh said, “We are with the MVA, but look at the demands. It is ideological.”

    BJP leader Girish Mahajan on Tuesday met Hitendra Thakur, seeking his support. Thakur’s Bahujan Vikas Aghadi has three MLAs and he is known as a supporter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

    The Sena has fielded Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar while the BJP has nominated Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik. The NCP has fielded Praful Patel and Congress nominated Imran Pratapgarhi).

    Given its strength in the Assembly (106 MLAs), the BJP has enough votes to win two seats, while the Sena, NCP and Congress can win one seat each.

    The Sena (55), NCP (53) and Congress (44) — all constituents of the MVA-have enough votes together to ensure the victory for the second candidate of the Sena.

  • RS polls: With close contest expected in several states, parties sweat it out to keep flock together

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI/JAIPUR/MUMBAI: Ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls, political temperatures were soaring in several states that could see close contests, with parties trying to keep their flock together and trading accusations of poaching of MLAs.

    After more than two decades, Maharashtra will witness a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls as there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats.

    The Shiv Sena has decided to shift its MLAs to a five-star hotel in south Mumbai to ward off overtures and the ruling MVA leaders were holding talks with smaller parties and Independents backing the tripartite dispensation.

    Maharashtra | Shiv Sena MLAs being shifted to a hotel in Malad, Mumbai ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections pic.twitter.com/BdZOI8CuBJ
    — ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2022
    The BJP has asked its MLAs to come to Mumbai in the next two days. “We were in ‘The Retreat’ (at Madh island in northwest Mumbai) and all our ministers too were present there. We will be moving to hotel ‘The Trident’ (in south Mumbai),” Sena MLA and party spokesperson Sunil Prabhu said.

    The Trident is a stone’s throw from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly where voting will take place.

    In the 288-member House, smaller parties have 16 MLAs together while the number of Independents is 13. A total of seven candidates- BJP (3), Shiv Sena (2), NCP (1), and Congress (1)- are in the fray for the six RS seats. The contest for the sixth seat is between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.

    Mumbai | Ahead of June 10 RS polls, meeting of Maha Vikas Aghadi partners begins- Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP discuss the strategy. Maharashtra CM & Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge among others present at Trident pic.twitter.com/JqPLg63saI
    — ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2022
    In Rajasthan, the BJP wrote to the Enforcement Directorate and the Rajasthan chief electoral officer, expressing apprehensions about horse-trading and the use of black money in the Rajya Sabha polls.

    The Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore and party whip Jogeshwar Garg accused the Congress of misusing government machinery to intimidate MLAs.

    Their reaction came as Rajasthan police serve a notice to BJP legislator Chandrakanta Meghwal in a five-year-old assault case.

    Meghwal, who is camping in Jaipur with other MLAs of the party ahead of elections to the upper house, did not appear at the police station in Kota.

    ALSO READ | Congress complains to EC over ‘horse-trading’ in Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan

    After the notice, the opposition BJP accused Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of hatching a conspiracy but an aide of the Congres leader dismissed the charge saying the case against Meghwal was registered when the BJP was in power.

    The Congress had shifted its MLAs to Udaipur on June 2, saying it fears horse-trading by the BJP.

    Congress leader Mahesh Joshi gave a letter to the chief electoral officer demanding action against alleged horse-trading attempts.

    Joshi, however, did not name anyone or any party in the complaint. He had also given a similar complaint to the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Sunday. Elections to four seats of the Rajya Sabha from the state will take place on June 10.

    ALSO READ | Notice to Rajasthan MLA in five-year-old case, BJP links it to Rajya Sabha polls

    While the Congress can easily win two and the BJP one, the contest is for the fourth seat for which the BJP is backing Independent candidate Subhash Chandra.

    Chandra claimed that eight Congress MLAs may vote for him and asked former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot to also cross sides. This would be an opportunity for Pilot to avenge his “humiliation”, the media baron told reporters.

    Pilot, however, advised Chandra to withdraw from the contest to avoid being humiliated. “An advice to the Independent candidate of Rajasthan — Better to be out of the contest before voting on 10th. It is better to be humble than to be humiliated,” he tweeted.

    “Unfortunately politics is not like making a TV series where you decide who will do what,” he said, targeting the media baron.

    Meanwhile, an official statement claimed the two legislators of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have decided to support the ruling Congress after meeting Gehlot.

    However, the legislators said they want to stay in a circuit house or any other place than the hotel where other Congress legislators are camping, according to the statement.

    Six candidates are in the fray for the Rajya Sabha poll to four seats from Karnataka, leading to a heated contest for the fourth seat. The Congress on Tuesday appealed to the ‘secular MLAs’ to cast their ‘conscience votes’ for their candidate Mansoor Ali Khan.

    Congress Karnataka unit chief D K Shivakumar said he and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were making this appeal to everyone in the Karnataka Assembly. Offering to trade second preference votes with the Congress, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said his main agenda is to defeat the BJP.

    The former chief minister also claimed that even if JD(S) manages to get the 22 second preference votes from the Congress, it will be in a leading position.

    Despite not having the adequate number of votes to win the fourth seat from the state Assembly, all the three political parties in the state — BJP, Congress and JD(S) — have fielded candidates for the seat, forcing an election.

    “My main agenda is that BJP should face a defeat, I’m ready for it. After Congress General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala called me, I calculated and have personally informed him that we (JDS) are ready to transfer our 32 second preference votes to Congress, but want their (Congress) 24 second preference votes in return,” Kumaraswamy said.

    Speaking to reporters, he said he doesn’t have a better offer than this to make and asked Congress to prove its “secular commitment”.

    The six candidates in the fray for Rajya Sabha polls from the state are – Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh and outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya from the BJP, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and state general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan from the Congress, and former MP D Kupendra Reddy from the JD(S).

    Despite the JD(S) seeking support to ensure Reddy’s election to the Upper House of the parliament, the Congress did not withdraw its second candidate Khan from the fray and has issued a whip to all its MLAs asking them to vote for the party’s candidates.

    There are talks within political circles that the BJP may be at an advantage if preference votes were to be counted and Congress and JD(S) don’t come to any understanding.