High voltage polling for 25 Rajya Sabha seats in seven state begins

NewsBharati    23-Mar-2018
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New Delhi, March 23: After BJP registered a historic victory in Tripura, a high voltage polling for 25 Rajya Sabha seats in seven states began on Friday morning. The counting of votes will be taken up after the voting ends at 4 PM.

 

Notably, the polls to Rajya Sabha, which will have 58 vacancies in April began at 9 AM today. Of 58 members, 33 candidates from 10 states have already been elected unanimously. Voting for remaining 26 seats is been taking place in six states including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

Polling for 25 Rajya Sabha seats in seven states began at 9 this morning. It will continue till 4 PM. The states are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Kerala. The counting of votes will be taken up after the voting ends.

11 candidates are contesting 10 seats of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has fielded nine candidates, including Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have one candidate each.

A total of six candidates including Congress nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi are in the fray for 5 seats of West Bengal. On the other side, there are three candidates competing for two seats in Jharkhand while five candidates are in the field in Karnataka for four seats.

In Telangana, a total of four candidates are in the field for three seats. The state's ruling TRS has fielded three candidates and Congress one. However, BJP and TDP Telangana Unit had said that they will stay away from the polls.

Importantly, the Rajya Sabha has a total strength of 245 members of which 233 are representatives of the states and Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry. The remaining 12 members are nominated by the President. A Rajya Sabha member must be a citizen of India and must not be less than 30 years of age. He/she must possess qualifications as may be prescribed under any law made by Parliament. The Rajya Sabha members are elected through indirect voting by MLAs through the process of proportional representation.