Rajya Sabha polls: BJP clinches Karnataka, Haryana; Congress bags Rajasthan
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched victories in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Haryana in the Rajya Sabha polls on Friday. The Indian National Congress got all its three candidates elected in Rajasthan. However, the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra suffered a setback with the BJP winning three of six seats. In Karnataka, the BJP won three seats and Congress bagged one.
Why does this story matter?
Of the total 57 vacant RS seats, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu each had six seats vacant. Bihar had five seats, while Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh each had four seats vacant. Madhya Pradesh and Odisha each had three seats vacant. Further, two seats each from Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana and one seat from Uttarakhand were also vacant. Forty-one candidates were elected unopposed.
Sitharaman, Goyal, Surjewala among big winners
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, the Congress's Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh, and the Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut were among the 16 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Haryana. Maharashtra and Haryana witnessed a tussle over cross-voting and alleged breach of election rules, delaying the counting by around eight hours. Rajasthan also reportedly witnessed cross-voting.
BJP wins 3 seats in Maharashtra, setback for MVA
In Maharashtra, Union minister Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde, and Dhananjay Mahadik won. Shiv Sena's Raut, NCP's Praful Patel, and Congress's Imran Pratapgarhi also won the elections. In a setback to the Sena, the BJP defeated Sanjay Pawar to win its third seat. Both the BJP and the MVA had earlier approached the Election Commission alleging cross-voting and seeking disqualification of votes.
Congress wins three seats in Rajasthan, BJP gets one
In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress won three of the four seats, while the BJP bagged the remaining one seat. Congress's Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik, and Pramod Tiwari won from the state. BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari won, however, Zee Media founder Subhash Chandra—an independent backed by the BJP—lost the seat. Dholpur MLA Shobharani Kushwah of the BJP reportedly cross-voted for the Congress candidate Tiwari.
Kuldeep Bishnoi sinks Maken's ship, BJP wins big in Haryana
In Haryana, the Congress suffered a setback with the BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar and independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, backed by the BJP and its ally Jannayak Janata Party, winning two seats, while the Congress's Ajay Maken, a former Union minister, lost. Congress MLA and polling agent BB Batra said the party's Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-voted for Sharma, while another Congress MLA's vote was declared invalid.
BJP wins three in Karnataka, Congress one
It was a photo-finish for the BJP in Karnataka, with the party winning all the three Rajya Sabha seats it contested out of the four that went to polls. Congress won one, while the Janata Dal (Secular) lost the one seat it had. BJP's Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh, MLC Lehar Singh Siroya, and ex-Union minister Jairam Ramesh of the Congress were declared winners.
