Altogether, 27 RS seats from seven states went to elections on Saturday.
This round of biennial election, to fill up 58 berths in the Upper House of Parliament, had seen its share of controversy and suspense from the run up to the polls—in a clear departure from the past elections where results could be predicted in a routine manner. A large number of independent candidates set the stage for a close finish in states such as UP and Haryana.
Days before the polling, a sting operation exposed alleged attempts to bribe MLAs to vote in favour of particular candidates in Karnataka.
The Election Commission sought reports from the states, examined the tapes before finally allowing the polls as per schedule. And on Saturday, allegations of cross voting in defiance of party whips came from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Eight MLAs from former PM HD Devegowda’s JD(S) party voted against the party nominee in the southern state.
Samajwadi Party wins 7 Rajya Sabha seats
Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.
The results showed that Bahujan Samaj Party, which had backed Congress Rajya Sabha nominees in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, chose not to transfer its surplus votes to any other party candidate in UP.
Besides Sibal, the others who made it to the Rajya Sabha from the state are two recent returnees to SP-fold Amar Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Kuwar Rewati Raman Singh, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Sukhram Singh Yadav, Sanjay Seth and Surendra Nagar (all from Samajwadi Party),
Satish Chandra Mishra and Ashok Sidharth (both from BSP) and Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP) also made it to the Upper House.
@Agency report.
