Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan on June 19

JAIPUR: Voting for the three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan will be held on June 19 on the legislative assembly premises.

"The preparations for voting for the Rajya Sabha polls have been completed.

The voting will take place from 9 am to 4 pm and the counting of votes will take place from 5 pm," Returning Officer Pramil Kumar Mathur said.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, all necessary precautions, including social distancing, will be followed during the election, he added.

Four candidates have submitted nomination papers for the three seats to the Upper House of Parliament, Mathur said.

The ruling Congress has nominated K C Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Rajendra Gehlot and Onkar Singh Lakhawat.

In the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the Congress has 107 MLAs and the support of Independent legislators and MLAs of other parties such as the Rashtriya Lok Dal, CPI(M) and Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP).

The ruling party has adequate strength in the House to win two of the three seats and the opposition BJP, with 72 MLAs and the support of three Rashtriya Loktantrik Party legislators, has the numbers to comfortably win a seat.

Ahead of the election, both the Congress and the BJP have shifted the MLAs of their camps to different hotels.

The Congress has accused the BJP of making attempts to poach its MLAs for the Rajya Sabha polls and destablising the government, a charge denied by the opposition party.

Congress MLAs as well as the independents and legislators of other parties who support the government are staying in a hotel on the Delhi highway since last week, while the saffron party shifted its MLAs to a hotel on the Tonk road here on Tuesday.

The ruling party has cited alleged poaching attempts as the reason behind lodging the MLAs in the hotel, while the BJP has claimed it will be holding training sessions for its legislators for the Rajya Sabha polls.