Rajya Sabha elections: Polling underway, BJP eyeing win in 9 of 10 seats in UP

The voting for Rajya Sabha polls is underway and will continue till 4 pm today in six states - Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

Voting is being held for 25 of 59 Rajya Sabha seats. Counting of ballots will be taken up at 5 pm.

On March 15, 33 candidates from 10 states were declared elected unopposed with seven union ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar among them.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is in the fray and is certain to win from UP where there are 11 candidates in the fray for 10 seats. The ruling BJP is likely to win eight out of the 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh as the four-MLA strong Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and the Apna Dal (Sonelal) with nine MLAs have decided to vote for BJP nominees.

Besides Arun Jaitley, the others in the fray include Ashok Bajpai, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Kanta Kardam, Harnath Singh Yadav, Anil Jain, Anil Kumar Agarwal and GVL Narasimha Rao.

While BJP is expected to garner a dozen seats in the Upper House, it is yet a long way from a majority in the 245-member House. BJP along with its allies have 324 MLAs in the 403-member Assembly and a candidate needs 37 first preference votes to secure a win.

At present, BJP has 58 Rajya Sabha MPs

From West Bengal, six candidates, including Congress nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi, are in the fray for the five Rajya Sabha seats with the state's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) deciding to back the eminent lawyer.

In Karnataka, five candidates are in the electoral arena for four seats and the state's ruling Congress has fielded three nominees. BJP and JD(S) also have one each.

Polls will also be held for two seats in Jharkhand where three candidates are in the fray, with two of the state's ruling BJP and one from the Congress. Coming to Chhattisgarh, one candidate each of the ruling BJP and main opposition Congress will be eyeing the lone Rajya Sabha seat.

In Kerala, the Congress-led opposition grouping and the Left-led coalition are contesting the by-election for one seat.

Lastly, in Telangana, four candidates will be contesting for three seats. The ruling TRS has enough numbers to get two of its three candidates and is counting to push a third candidate with the support of the AIMIM led by Asaduddin Owaisi. While the Congress has fielded one candidate, opposition BJP and TDP have decided to stay away from the Rajya Sabha election.