After national level meetings of both Congress and BJP, the political heat is about to continue in Rajasthan till June 10th as interesting election of 4 Rajya Sabha seats is ahead in the state.
The BJP is holding all 4 seats but will lose at least two of them, as now the majority is with Congress in the state assembly.
The party-wise position in 200 members Rajasthan assembly suggests that Congress will not face any problem in winning 2 out of 4 seats as the party holds 108 seats of its own and one member of RLD is part of the government, while 13 independents and 2 members of Bhartiya Tribal Party had also supported the Gehlot government at the time of political crisis in July 2020. So in all Congress has votes of 124 members. The CPM has 2 seats but its stand is not clear yet, though it is sure that it will not go with BJP.
On the other hand, BJP has 71 seats and may get the support of 3 members of RLP so there is a huge gap between both the parties and Congress looks in quite a comfortable position on paper.
All eyes are on BJP’s stand now as it is not clear whether it will give a walk over to Congress on 2 seats or contest on all seats. "We have started discussions but the matter has to be decided by the party high command," said Satish Poonia, the state president of BJP.
The sources in BJP said that though the party does not have enough numbers to win all the seats, it will try to take advantage of internal conflicts of the ruling side. "There will be a whip for party MLAs so Congress can be sure from their members but one can not be sure of independents and supporting MLAs as this is the last big election before the assembly polls of 2023," said a senior MLA of BJP on anonymity.
He indicated that the party will contest at least two seats.
The nominations for the elections of the upper house of the parliament will start on Tuesday and candidates of both BJP and Congress are expected to be declared in the next 3-4 days.
