Elections to 19 Rajya Sabha seats spread over nine States, including polls in 18 that had been deferred due to the coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) pandemic in March, will be held on Friday.
MLAs who have been hospitalised with COVID-19 will be allowed to vote by postal ballot, according to an Election Commission of India instruction on Wednesday.
Apart from the 18 seats, which were vacated in April, the ECI on June 1 announced polls to six seats that would be vacated in June and July. Of these, five went uncontested, leaving one in Mizoram to go to the polls on Friday.
With Friday’s elections, the BJP’s position of the single largest party in the Upper House, with 75 members out of 245, is likely to get a boost.
In Andhra Pradesh, Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla, Nathwani Parimal, Pilli Subhaschandra Bose and Venkataramana Rao Mopidevi of the YSRCP and Varla Ramaiah of the Telugu Desam Party are in the fray for four seats.
BJP candidates Abhay Ganpatray Bhardwaj, Amin Narhari Hirabhai and Ramila Becharbhai Bara and Congress’s Solanki Bharatbhai Madhavsinh and Gohil Shaktisinhji Harichandrasinhji are contesting for Gujarat’s four seats.
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren will be the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s candidate, along with Deepak Prakash of the BJP and Shahzada Anwar of the Congress on the ballots for two seats from the State.
Former Union Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP earlier this year, and Sumar Singh Solanki are the two BJP candidates, while the Congress has fielded Digvijaya Singh and Phool Singh Baraiya for the three seats going to polls in Madhya Pradesh.
Kennedy Cornelius Khyriem of the Congress and Wanweiroy Kharlukhi of the National People’s Party are in the fray for one seat in Meghalaya. The contest for one seat in Manipur will be between Congress candidate Tongbram Mangibabu Singh and BJP’s Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba. The contest for one seat in Mizoram would be between Dr. Lallianchhunga of the Congress, K. Vanlalvena of the Mizo National Front and B. Lalchhanzova of the Zoram People’s Movement.
Polling will be held for three seats in Rajasthan, with the BJP’s Onkar Singh Lakhawat and Rajendra Gehlot and the Congress’s Neeraj Dangi and K.C. Venugopal in the fray.
