The election for 15 Rajya Sabha seats across three states will be held on Tuesday amid concern about cross-voting.
A total of 41 leaders for 56 seats have already been elected unopposed. Those elected included former Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J.P. Nadda, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L. Murugan.
For 15 seats, elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
In Uttar Pradesh, 11 candidates are in the fray with the BJP and the SP having the numbers to send seven and three members respectively. But BJP's Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate has necessitated a keen contest. The BJP is said to be banking on surplus votes from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has aligned with the NDA.
The BJP has fielded former Union Minister R.P.N. Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, senior state leader Amarpal Maurya, former Minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain.
The SP has fielded actor-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
![Angry Jaya Bachchan hits back at Chairman after skips her question at Rajya Sabha [reactions]](https://data1.ibtimes.co.in/en/full/794917/angry-jaya-bachchan-hits-back-chairman-after-skips-her-question-rajya-sabha-reactions.png?w=744&h=393&l=50&t=40 "'She is never in good mood..' : Angry Jaya Bachchan hits back at Chairman after skips her question at Rajya Sabha [reactions]")
In Karnataka, the ruling Congress shifted its MLAs to a private hotel on Monday. There are four Rajya Sabha seats and five candidates. From the Congress, former Union Minister Ajay Maken, current Rajya Sabha MPs Syed Nasir Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekar are contesting. BJP's former MLC Narayansa Bhandage is contesting and Kupendra Reddy is the BJP-JD(S) alliance candidate.
In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP has forced a contest on the state's single seat by fielding Harsh Mahajan against Congress's Abhishek Manu Singhvi. While the Congress has 40 MLAs to the BJP's 25, the election will be seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
SP MLAs skip meeting in UP
Yet another Samajwadi Party MLA has joined the rebel group. Manoj Pandey, the MLA from Rae Bareli, on Tuesday morning resigned from the post of chief whip of the SP legislature party without assigning any reason.
Pandey is said to be ready to vote for the BJP and had skipped the Samajwadi Party meeting on Monday night. He had been upset over Swami Prasad Maurya's statements against Sanatana Dharma and had even voiced his ire over the matter.
Earlier, Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh, who represents the Gauriganj Assembly seat in Amethi, cross-voted in favour of BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections.
He said, "It is not against any party. It is a voice of conscience," and went on to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'. Another SP MLA Abhay Singh was also seen with him.
(With inputs from IANS)
