Rajya Sabha Polls: Will BJP increase its tally in the Upper House?

Voting for Rajya Sabha began on the morning of 11 June. A total of 27 Upper House seats from seven states went to polls.

A total of 58 Rajya Sabha seats from 16 states have been lying vacant for the last two months. Of these, 31 candidates have already won unopposed and their results will be formally announced, along with the winners of the 27 seats, on 11 June.

With 30 candidates from eight states already elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, voting for the remaining seats is underway in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

In Uttar Pradesh - which has the most number of seats - the Samajwadi Party has seven candidates, the BSP two, the BJP one and the Congress one. Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra has been reportedly backed by the BJP.

In Madhya Pradesh, two of the BJP's candidates look set to bag an easy win as the numbers seem to be on their side, NDTV reported.

In Jharkhand, where two seats are up for polls, the BJP has called Mahesh Poddar in as a third candidate to make things difficult for the Congress-backed Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate, Basant Soren, who is short of six votes to win the second seat, NDTV reported.

In Uttarakhand, the Congress' Pradeep Tamta faces a contest from two independents. Mayawati's decision on who her party will support could decide the contest in Uttarakhand, UP and Madhya Pradesh.

In Karnataka, the Congress has forced a contest for the four seats by fielding a third candidate. The BJP looks set to win a seat but the JDS is fuming that its candidate BM Farook may not, NDTV reported.

The Congress has no direct stake in Haryana. While the BJP will win one, the second seat will be a toss up between two independent candidates, backed by the BJP and the INLD. The Congress' support will decide the winner. If it backs BJP's candidate it will help increase the rival's numbers in the Rajya Sabha, but its local unit is dead against voting for the INLD backed candidate, reported NDTV.

Six ministers are seeking to return to the Rajya Sabha in the election including, Muqtar Abbas Naqvi, Venkaiah Naidu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Chaudhary Birender Singh, Piyush Goyal and Suresh Prabhu.