The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 11 of out of 26 seats in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls in six states on Friday amid high voltage drama where the saffron part grabbed the extra ninth seat defeating the newfound affability between 25 years arch-rivals the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The Election Commission had in February announced vacancies for 59 Rajya Sabha seats in 17 states. Earlier in March 15, 33 candidates from 10 states were declared elected unopposed with BJP having 13 in its bag.
The BJP in all won 28 Rajya Sabha seats in the biennial polls, which is gain of 11 seats in the Upper House. The saffron party gains came from Uttar Pradesh, where the party had won three-fourth of assembly seats in the state assembly elections in 2017.
All eyes were on Uttar Pradesh, as BJP president Amit Shah was directly monitoring the developments in the state and had called a meeting of all MPs and MLAs in Lucknow on Wednesday and Thursday with the aim to win the extra ninth candidate and defeat the newly formed bonahide of the arch-rivals
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had also called for a meeting on Wednesday and dinner to makes strategies to make smooth passage of BSP chief Mayawati’s candidate.
BJP-supported independent candidate Agarwal pulled off a surprise win with help of second preference votes. He defeated BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar, in spite of the BSP and SP pact made during the Gorakhpur bypoll elections.
The BJP leaders who made up to the Upper House of the Parliament from Uttar Pradesh are Union Minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao and ninth candidate Anil Kumar Agarwal. While, SP candidate Jaya Bachchan retains her seat.
Results
Jharkhand - BJP’s Sameer Uranv and Congress’ Dheeraj Sahu
Telangana - Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) won all the three seats
West Bengal - Trinamool Congress bagged four seats, while Congress won one.
Karnataka - Congress won three seats and BJP’s lone candidate also made through to the upper house.
Also Read | Rajya Sabha Elections 2018: Who stands where, here is all you need to know
Highlights:
#11:50 PM: I want to thank PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah & CM Yogi Adityanath. I feel elated that i could do what they expected from me. We all are really delighted with the results: Anil Agrawal, BJP's winning candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections.
#11:40 PM: BJP used all its money power & their state powers in the voting. They did not let two of our people vote, they were not allowed to come out of the jail. Even when they had the orders from the court & the election commission: Satish Mishra, BSP
#11:00 PM: All the 9 candidates of BJP have won Rajya Sabha Elections, says UP CM Yogi Adityanath
#10:30 PM: BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pandey wins Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, calls it a victory of democracy
#10:20 PM: We have just come to know that the CM is in contact with the Returning Officer, who is being forced to bring the result in the favor of BJP. If this is found to be true then we will take action against it: Hemant Soren, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand
#10:05 PM: BJP's Arun Jaitley, Anil Jain, GVL Narasimha Rao, Vijay Pal Tomar, Kanta Kardam, Ashok Bajpai, Harnath Yadav, Sakaldeep Rajbhar & SP's Jaya Bachchan Ji have won. Calculation of Anil Aggarwal is on. He is going to win: JPS Rathore, BJP Polling agent
#9:20 PM: BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrashekhar wins Rajya Sabha Elections in Karnataka
#9:15 PM: Congress' Naseer Hussain wins Rajay Sabha, calls it an important responsibility
#9:00 PM: Telangana Rashtra Samithi's (TRS) B. Prakash, J. Santosh Kumar and AB. Lingaiah Yadav win Rajay Sabha Elections
#7:30 PM: Counting of votes for Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka begins
#7:10 PM: Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi wins Rajya Sabha elections from West Bengal
#7:07 PM: TMC's Subhasish Chakraborty wins Rajya Sabha Elections, says he believes in democracy
#7:06 PM: TDP leader C M Ramesh unanimously elected to Rajya Sabha
#7:05 PM: Uttar Pradesh Counting of votes for Rajya Sabha elections begins after clearance from the Election Commission.
#7:01 PM: TDP leader CM Ramesh has been elected to Rajya Sabha unanimously
#6:50 PM: TMC's Abir Ranjan Biswas wins Rajya Sabha elections from West Bengal says 'I am at seventh heaven of delight'.
#6:30 PM: SP and BSP demand from Election Commission to declare votes of BJP's Nitin Agrawal and BSP's Anil Singh invalid alleging that they did not show their ballot paper to the polling agent.
#6:21 PM: BJP's Saroj Pandey wins Rajya Sabha Election from Chhattisgarh by beating Congress' Lekhram Sahu.
#01:20 PM: The second candidate of our coalition will also win. Raja Bhaiyya will also vote for us. You don’t celebrate Eid and that’s why you think wrong. There is no role for Khilji in this election. People ruling the state are Khilji: Azam Khan, SP
#01:10 PM: Raja Bhaiyya has denied reports of him voting for BJP. He made it clear that he is with Akhilesh Yadav and will vote for Jaya Bachchan.
#12:20 PM: Independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya had a conversation with BJP top brass. He will vote for the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls: Sources
#11:50 AM: Congress MPs protest, demand Centre to file review petition against All the 9 candidates of BJP will win. SP insulted their worker & people will answer them for choosing a candidate that entertains the society rather than one who serves the society: Nitin Agrawal, BJP (son of Naresh Agrawal)
#11:20 AM: Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha adjourned till Monday after TDP MPs stormed into well of the house over the demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh.
#10:50 AM: Voting underway at Kerala Legislative Assembly in Thiruvananthapuram for one Rajya Sabha seat from the state.
#10:40 AM: I have voted for BJP, I don't know about the rest: Anil Singh, BSP MLA
#10:30 AM: Voting underway at Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru for four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka
#10:15 AM: Meanwhile, TDP MPs are protesting in Parliament premises demanding special status fo Andhra Pradesh
#10:10 AM: Visuals from Telangana assembly ahead of voting for three Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
#10:00 AM: BJP will win all the nine Rajya Sabha seats where we have fielded our candidates. Nine more BJP candidates will make entry to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh this time: Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya
#09:55 AM: There will be no cross-voting, but yes BJP MLAs will cross-vote in our favour: Ram Gopal Yadav, SP
#09:45 AM: Kolkata: MLAs queue up at the state assembly to cast their votes for #RajyaSabhaElections, 5 seats are being contested from West Bengal.
#09:30 AM: Lucknow: Visuals from Uttar Pradesh Assembly; CM Yogi Adityanath meets party MLAs, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma also present
#09:20 AM: Bengaluru: Senior BJP leaders Prakash Javdekar, BS Yeddyurappa & party's Rajya Sabha candidate Rajeev Chandrashekar met at their party office in Vidhan Soudha, earlier today.
#09:15 AM: Vijay Mishra (Nishad Party MLA) & Anil Singh (BSP MLA) were present there (yesterday's meeting of BJP & its allies), which confirms their support: OP Rajbhar, UP Minister
#09:00 AM: Voting for Rajya Sabha elections in 6 states- Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, begins.
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