Rajya Sabha Elections 2022 Live Updates: BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik wins sixth Rajya Sabha seat by defeating Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar
States of Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka are set to witness a thriller today
Rajya Sabha Elections 2022 Live Updates
Full list of candidates and seats going to polls:
Forty-one candidates were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from 11 states on Friday (June 3) at the close of nominations.
Among the prominent winners were former Congress leader Kapil Sibal, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Choudhary and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.
With this, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka are set to witness a thriller as none of the candidates withdrew their candidatures.
The polling is to take place tomorrow for the remaining 16 seats.
Check out the full list of candidates and seats going to polls:
Maharashtra (6 seats)
BJP - Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde, Dhananjay Mahadik
Shiv Sena - Sanjay Raut, Sanjay Pawar
Congress - Imran Pratapgarhi
NCP - Praful Patel
Tamil Nadu (4 seats)
BJP - Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaggesh, Lahar Singh Siroya
Congress - Jairam Ramesh, Mansoor Ali Khan
JDS - Kupendra Reddy
Haryana (2 seats)
Congress - Ajay Maken
BJP - Krishan Pal Panwar
Independent - Kartikeya Sharma (backed by BJP)
Rajasthan (4 seats)
BJP - Ghanshyam Tiwari
Congress - Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari
Independent - Subhash Chandra (backed by BJP)
Maharashtra Rajya Sabha elections: On eve of polling, parties hold meetings to fine-tune strategy
Political parties in Maharashtra are engaged in hectic parleys to finalise their strategy for Friday's elections to six seats of Rajya Sabha from the state, being viewed as a platform for the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies and opposition BJP to test their strength.
After more than two decades, Maharashtra will witness a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls as there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats. The polling process will start at 9 am and end at 4 pm.
The MVA allies - Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress - have shifted their MLAs to different hotels and resorts in Mumbai and they will be kept there till the polling process commences.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge, BJP leader and Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw have been holding meetings with leaders of their respective parties here on Thursday and finalising the strategy for the polls.
The 288-member Legislative Assembly is the electoral college for the elections. But the total votes have come down to 285 since there is a vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke and a special court on Thursday rejecting the pleas filed by minister Nawab Malik and former minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a day's bail to vote in the elections.
State NCP president Jayant Patil said the party was upset with the court's decision.
"None of them (Malik and Deshmukh) are convicted. So by rejecting their bail plea, they have been deprived of their constitutional right to vote," he said.
Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was found infected with COVID-19 a few days back, tested negative on Thursday. So he can now participate in the voting process along with other members of the Assembly. He was found infected on Sunday and was under home isolation since then.
Union minister Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde, Dhananjay Mahadik (BJP), Praful Patel (NCP), Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar (Shiv Sena) and Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress) are in fray for the six seats. The contest is for the sixth seat - between BJP's Mahadik and Sena's Pawar.
Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP 53, Congress 44 , BJP 106, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) three, Samajwadi party, AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti party two each, MNS, CPI(M), PWP, Swabhimani Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, Jansurajya Shakti party, Krantikari Shetkari Party one each, and there are 13 independent legislators.
The quota for first preference votes to get an candidate elected has come down to 41. Congress and NCP have decided to transfer their second preference votes to Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar.
In the fight for the sixth seat, both MVA parties and BJP are banking on the 25 additional votes of smaller parties and independents. There are three ministers in the cabinet from smaller parties and independents.
The elections are being held through open ballot and state congress president Nana Patole will be the authorized agent for the Congress,m where the party legislators will have to show their vote to him before dropping it into the box.
Shiv sena secretary and close aide of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray Milind Narvekar and Rajya Sabha member Anil Desai are likely to be the authorised agents for the Shiv Sena legislators, while NCP's Lok Sabha member Sunil Tatkare and party's state unit president Jayant Patil will be the authorised agents for the MLAs of their party.
BJP leaders Ashish Shelar and Chandrashekar Bawankule are likely to be the authorised agents for the party legislators.
Rajasthan: Contest for fourth seat spices up
The stage is set for the elections to four seats of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on Friday, with the ruling Congress in a position to win two seats and the Opposition BJP one.
However, the contest for the fourth seat spiced up after media baron Subhash Chandra filed his papers as an Independent candidate.
He is backed by the BJP and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), and despite having the support of 33 MLAs of both parities needs eight more votes. A candidate requires 41 votes for victory.
On the other hand, the Congress is claiming the support of 126 MLAs, exuding confidence of winning three seats but it needs the backing of Independent legislators and those of other parties to win a third seat.
The Congress currently has 108 legislators in the 200-member state Assembly and needs 123 votes to win three seats. The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) with two MLAs has extended support to the ruling party.
The party is also claiming the support of 13 Independents and one Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA, who is currently a state minister.
Fearing horse-trading, the Congress on June 2 shifted its MLAs and some of the Independent legislators supporting it to an Udaipur resort. They are expected to return Jaipur on Thursday, a day ahead of the polling.
Meanwhile, the BJP too shifted its MLAs to a Jaipur hotel in the name of a "training camp". The BJP has also given a complaint to the Election Commission of India and Enforcement Directorate accusing the Congress of horse trading.
Karnataka: Cong & JDS fail to strike deal, tight contest for 4th seat
As the stage is set for Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from Karnataka on Friday, suspense continues over the outcome of the fourth seat, to which all three political parties are contenders, despite none of them having adequate number of votes to win it.
The ruling BJP appeared confident of winning the three seats it is contesting in, and made final efforts to ensure all its votes are intact and get cast validly, by holding a mock voting exercise and a dinner meeting for legislators, hosted by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, one of the candidates.
Interesting turn of events took place in the opposition camp, as top leaders of Congress and JD(S) tried to reach out to MLAs of each other, with talks between them to forge some kind of a formal understanding reaching a deadlock, as both parties firmly stuck to their stand.
JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy had made an offer to trade second preference votes with the Congress and to "start afresh" by forgetting the past between the two political outfits, but the grand old party made it clear to the regional party that it was now time for it to return the favour, pointing out that former PM H D Deve Gowda got election to RS last time with its support in June 2020.
Haryana Cong MLAs leave Raipur resort, to reach Chandigarh hours before RS polls
The Haryana Congress MLAs have left a resort in Chattisgarh's Raipur and are expected to reach just hours before the polling for the Rajya Sabha elections begins on Friday, sources told news agency PTI said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP-JJP MLAs remain lodged at a resort in Chandigarh for the second day as the contest for one of the two seats going to the polls sharpened.
The Congress had shifted its MLAs to Raipur a week ago fearing poaching of its legislators. Sources said they left the resort there on Thursday evening and are expected to reach Chandigarh a few hours later.
While the BJP with 40 MLAs has sufficient votes to win one seat, the contest has spiced up for the second seat with entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma, an Independent candidate who is backed by the BJP-JJP combine. He is also supported by Independents and Gopal Kanda, lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party.
A candidate needs 31 votes to win the elections.
RS Poll: EC directs Rajasthan CEO to ensure transparency in election after horse trading allegations
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the chief electoral officer of Rajasthan to ensure free and fair elections of Rajya Sabha, apparently after charge by Congress against the BJP of possible horse-trading attempts.
The ECI forwarded a representation, submitted by Congress on June 7 to ECI, to the CEO directing him to take necessary action on the representation.
Ensure your vote doesn't turn invalid due to some mistake: Fadnavis tells party MLAs on RS polls eve
On the eve of elections to six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday held a meeting here with the MLAs of his party, where he advised them to ensure that their votes do not turn invalid due to some mistake.
The former chief minister was speaking to the BJP MLAs at a hotel.
"You have been instructed on how to exercise the preferential voting for the Rajya Sabha. You will have to ensure that your vote will not become invalid due to some mistake," the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly said.
"We have told you how to vote and you should do it accordingly," he added.
Kumaraswamy urges Congress to give its second preferential vote to JD(S) in RS elections
Ahead of the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka, former state chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday urged the Congress to give its second preferential votes to JDS, if it really wanted to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"After the filing of nominations by all parties, I am consistently requesting congress friends, if their intention is to defeat BJP, then you please sit and discuss," Kumaraswamy told ANI.
He further said, "We are requesting congress to please transfer their second preferential vote to us. We will transfer our 32 votes to your party, for which they are not agreeing, rather they are pressurising me to withdraw my candidate. How can I withdraw my candidate with 32 MLAs?" he said while accusing Congress of making attempts to destabilize their MLAs.
He accused the party of playing double games. "Today, Siddaramaiah told before several mediapersons about how they contacted JDS MLAs.. one side they are pressurising MLAs, another side they are criticising them openly," he said.
He concluded the interaction by saying that he only requests and expects all the MLAs to stay united and said, "until now, my confidence is that all 32 will be with us."
Mobile internet services suspended in Jaipur tehsil ahead of Rajya Sabha polls
Mobile internet services have been suspended for 12 hours starting 9 pm on Thursday in Jaipur's Amber tehsil where the Congress and other supporting MLAs are staying ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.
The divisional commissioner issued the order to suspend the services stating security threat to the protected people staying and moving in the area.
The MLAs are staying at Hotel Leela in the teshil since evening after being shifted from Udaipur. They will go to the assembly building for the Rajya Sabha elections on Friday morning from this hotel.
Taking a dig at the Congress, BJP state president Satish Poonia tweeted the order saying, "Internet shutdown in Amber due to fear of paper leak."
AIMIM MLAs to vote for Congress candidate Imran Pratapgarhi in Rajya Sabha polls
Haryana Congress MLAs leave for Chandigarh from Delhi
Haryana Congress MLAs left Delhi for Chandigarh where voting will take place for the Rajya Sabha elections on Friday.
They reached Delhi from Chhattisgarh's Raipur yesterday, where they were staying at a resort in a bid to avoid poaching. Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda, who is also travelling along with the MLAs, said that party candidate Ajay Maken will win the Rajya Sabha elections.
"We are confident that our candidate Ajay Maken will win with more votes than our strength," Hooda said.
Datta Bharne of NCP was first to cast his vote, 20 NCP MLA have cast their votes
Mumbai: Voting for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra began on Friday morning at the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex, here.
The polling process, which commenced at 9 am, will end at 4 pm and the results will be declared in the evening.
There are a total of seven candidates in the fray for six seats. While the BJP has fielded Union minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik, the Shiv Sena has given opportunity to MP Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar. From the NCP, Praful Patel is in the election ring, while the Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi.
The contest will be primarily for the sixth seat between BJP's Mahadik and Sena's Pawar. This is after more than two decades that Maharashtra is witnessing a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls.
The 288-member Legislative Assembly is the electoral college for the biennial elections. But the total votes have come down to 285 since there is a vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke and a special court on Thursday rejecting the pleas filed by minister Nawab Malik and former minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a day's bail to vote in the elections.
After the special court's decision, Malik and Deshmukh, who are currently in jail in separate money laundering cases, on Thursday evening approached the Bombay High Court for relief. The high court is scheduled to hear their pleas in the morning.
For the last couple of days, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) (comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) and the opposition BJP had kept their respective legislators in different hotels in Mumbai, where the party leaders explained to them to election process of the preferential system of voting.
On Friday morning, BJP legislators were the first to arrive at the Vidhan Bhavan in three buses for voting. Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Devendra Fadnavis, NCP leader and Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal were among the first to arrive at the venue.
Bhujbal expressed confidence that all four candidates of the MVA will win. The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has decided to vote in favour of the Congress candidate. The announcement was made by AIMIM Lok Sabha member from Aurangabad Imtiaz Jaleel hours before the polling began.
"Our 2 AIMIM Maharashtra MLAs have been asked to vote for @INCIndia candidate @ShayarImran for Rajya Sabha seat. We extend our best wishes to him!" he said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, describing AIMIM as the "B team" of the ruling alliance, BJP legislator Atul Bhatkalkar said that is the reason why its two legislators were supporting the MVA candidates.
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has got numbers and strengt: Maharashtra minister Aslam Shaikh
Union Minister Piyush Goyal arrives at Legislative Assembly in Mumbai
Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai casts his vote in Rajya Sabha Election 2022, at Vidhana Soudha
Rajasthan CM & Congress leader Ashok Gehlot casts his vote in Rajya Sabha Election 2022
JD(S) MLAs including HD Kumaraswamy arrive at Vidhana Soudha for Rajya Sabha Election 2022
‘He is pressurising them’: Kumaraswamy on Congress leader Siddaramaiah's claims that some JD(S) MLAs in are touch with him
In the first hour and a half, 50 per cent polling was completed. A total of 143 MLAs exercised their voting right, more than 60 BJP MLAs voted.
Live Rajya Sabha Election 2022: High-voltage battle in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana
Haryana Congress MLAs arrive at the residence of LoP & former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Bombay High Court refuses to entertain NCP leader Nawab Malik’s plea
The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to entertain NCP leader and state minister Nawab Malik’s plea challenging the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court order.
The PMLA court had rejected Malik’s plea seeking permission to visit Vidhan Sabha on Friday to vote in Rajya Sabha elections.
The HC bench of Justice Prakash D Naik asked Malik to move before an appropriate bench which hears bail applications.
Maharashtra | 180 MLAs have cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha election, according to ANI
Voted for Congress because I love it: JD(S) leader K Srinivasa Gowda
In Karnataka, JD(S) leader K Srinivasa Gowda told reporters that he voted for Congress because he “loves it”.
Earlier in the day, JD(S)’s H D Kumaraswamy had accused Congress leader Siddaramaiah of stopping his party MLAs from voting for JD(S).
Bombay HC denies permission to Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh to vote
The Bombay High Court on Friday, 10 June, denied immediate permission to Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, polling for which is underway till 4 pm. Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was also denied permission to vote, as per NDTV. The two politicians are lodged in custody in two separate money laundering cases.
Maharashtra: So far 238 legislators have cast their votes votes in the Rajya Sabha election
Maharashtra: 278 MLAs cast their votes till 1:24 pm in Rajya Sabha polls
Haryana: 89 of 90 votes polled; Independent MLA Balraj Kundu abstains
Eight-nine out of 90 MLAs of Haryana have cast their votes. The votes can be done till 4 pm. Independent MLA from Meham Balraj Kundu has abstained from voting, but efforts were being made by all the sides to convince him to come back to Vidhan Sabha and cast his vote.
Bhupinder Hooda was the last one to cast his vote.
Rajasthan BJP MLA’s vote triggers controversy
A BJP MLA’s vote in Rajasthan has triggered a controversy as Zee chairman Subhash Chandra demanded that it be declared “invalid”, alleging that a BJP poll observer had held the vote slip.
Shobha Rani Kushwaha, the BJP candidate from Dholpur, was voting when her party’s poll observer Rajendra Rathore took her vote slip, which is against the rules.
Kushwaha, reports said, was going to cross-vote for the Congress candidate, Pramod Tiwari.
Chandra, an independent candidate backed by the BJP in this seat, raised an objection and demanded that her vote be declared invalid on grounds that Rajendra Rathore had held her vote slip in his hands.
Rathore denied it.
“I saw her vote. I did not take it in my hand. Whatever has happened is an internal matter of the party. She voted in a way she was not authorised by the party to,” he said.
But Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia said there were “some anomalies” in Shobha Rani Kushwaha’s vote.
Poll observers are not supposed to hold an MLA’s vote. MLAs show their vote to the observer before slipping it into the secret ballot.
Haryana Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma seeks disqualification of 2 Congress votes, writes to EC
Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma has written to the Election Commission seeking disqualification/cancellation of the votes of Kiran Choudhry and BB Batra. Sharma has alleged that both the MLAs showed their votes to “other than their designated party observer”. Sharma also alleged that at the time when the incident took place during polling, he had lodged a verbal protest too, but the Returning Officer RK Nandal did not register Sharma’s protest. The Election Commission officials are examining his complaint and shall take a decision on it after the polling time concludes at 4 pm.
Some Congress MLAs' votes were dismissed as they violated the rules: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar
BJP meet Election Commission over Haryana and Maharashtra, asking that "this election be declared null & void on basis of broken rules of secrecy in voting"
Big win for BJP in Karnataka RS polls
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole writes to the Election Commission of India demanding the vote cancellation of BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar & independent MLA Ravi Rana for "violating the provisions of conduct of election rules."
BJP candidates FM Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh & MLC Lehar Singh Siroya and Congress candidate Jairam Ramesh win. JD(S) draws a blank, it had fielded D Kupendra Reddy from the state.
This is not my victory. It is a victory for Team Congress. Entire Congress party, PCC chief DK Shivakumar, CLP leader Siddaramaiah, Chief Whips, all MLAs, everybody voted. Not a single invalid vote,it's really a victory for teamwork. It's Team Congress that has won: Jairam Ramesh
RS polls: BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar, Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma elected from Haryana; Cong's Ajay Makan loses, say officials
Rajya Sabha Election 2022: Big setback to MVA as BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik defeats Sena's Sanjay Pawar
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