The elections and counting of votes for remaining 25 seats in six states including crucial Uttar Pradesh will be held on Friday. For the 58 Rajya Sabha seats to be filled, 33 candidates from 10 states were declared elected unopposed on March 15.
The voting is scheduled to begin at 9 am and the counting of votes will be taken up at 5 pm, an hour after the end of voting.
Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana are the six states that will feature in polls.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will contest from Uttar Pradesh, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Bihar and Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda has filed nomination papers as BJP candidate from Himachal Pradesh.
HERE ARE THE UPDATES:
#In Uttar Pradesh, BJP is virtually assured of 8 of the 10 seats amid suspense whether it can snatch an extra seat in the light of the newfound bonhomie between former arch rivals Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.
#Besides Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the others in the fray are Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao and Anil Kumar Agarwal.
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#The Samajwadi Party has fielded Jaya Bachchan and the BSP Bhimrao Ambedkar. With 19 MLAs, the BSP is short of 18 first preference votes and with Naresh Agarwal's son Nitin, who is still an SP MLA, likely to cross-vote for the BJP, the task will become difficult for the candidate of the Mayawati-led party.
# Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state sends 31 MPs to the 245-member Rajya Sabha, and the BJP, which won a massive victory in the 2017 Assembly elections, is yet to get a lion's share of these. Presently, the BJP has 58 Rajya Sabha MPs.
#The BJP has filed 18 candidates for the biennial polls which include BJP's media wing national head Anil Baluni from Uttarakhand and BJP general secretary from Chhattisgarh, Saroj Pandey.
# A bypoll will also be held for one seat in Kerala where M P Veerendra Kumar, the Left-backed candidate of Sharad Yadav faction of the JD(U), is pitted against Babu Prasad of the Congress.
#In Karnataka, five candidates are in the electoral arena for four seats. The state's ruling Congress has fielded three nominees, while there are one each of the BJP and JD(S).
#Polls will also be held for two seats in Jharkhand where three candidates are in the fray, including two of the state's ruling BJP and one of the Congress.
#In West Bengal, altogether six candidates, including Congress nominee Abhisek Manu Singhvi, are in the fray for the five Rajya Sabha seats. As per reports, the state's ruling Trinamool Congress has decided to back the eminent lawyer.
#Five candidates are in the fray in Karnataka for four seats. The state's ruling Congress has fielded three nominees, while there are one each of the BJP and JD(S).
#For the lone Chhattisgarh Rajya Sabha seat, one candidate each of the ruling BJP and main opposition Congress will cross swords.
#Four candidates will try their luck from Telangana where polling will be held for three seats.
#The Rajya Sabha vacancies next month include 17 from BJP and 12 from the Congress.
#Actor Rekha, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, and social worker Anu Aga, the three nominated members will retire in April.
#The BJP has also fielded Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot from Madhya Pradesh for another Rajya Sabha term.
#Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh L. Mandaviya and Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Parshottam Rupala will contest from Gujarat.
