Shivraj by his side, Scindia files papers for RS elections
New Delhi, March 13
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, BJP’s newest recruit Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh are among those in the fray for elections to 55 Rajya Sabha seats to be held on March 26 with a number of the contestants set to get elected unopposed.
Friday was the last date of filing of nominations for the biennial polls. Fifty-one of these 55 seats from 17 states are falling vacant in April due to retirement of sitting members, while four other seats are already vacant due to resignation of members.
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A keen battle is on the cards in Madhya Pradesh, where the Kamal Nath government faces a grim future following rebellion by at least 22 MLAs, as both BJP and Congress have announced two candidates each for the state’s three seats.
Scindia and Digvijaya Singh are expected to comfortably win in the polls. BJP’s Sumer Singh Solanki and Phool Singh Baraiya of the Congress are likely to slug it out for the third seat.
The two parties are comfortably placed to ensure the win of one of their candidates, and while the Congress appeared to have an edge for the third seat, but the decision of its 22 MLAs to resign from the state assembly has upended the number game.
Most of these MLAs are supporters of Scindia, who joined the BJP on Wednesday after quitting the Congress a day before.
The official tally of the Congress in the 228-member Assembly is 114 and the party also enjoyed the support of four Independents, two BSP and one SP MLA.
If the resignations of the 22 MLAs, who are camping in Bengaluru, are accepted or they abstain from voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, then the actual strength of the assembly will fall to 206. The Congress, on its own, will then have 92 members and the BJP 107 seats.
Two other candidates — BJP’s Ranjana Baghel and Ram Das Dahiwale, an Independent — have also filed their nominations in MP.
Apart from MP, there are seven vacancies from Maharashtra, six from Tamil Nadu, followed by five from West Bengal and Bihar, four each from Odisha, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, three each from Assam and Rajasthan, two each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand, and one each from HP, Manipur and Meghalaya. — PTI
