The voting for 11 Rajya Sabha seats will begin shortly, with Bihar, Haryana, and Odisha emerging as key battlegrounds.
The biennial polling is held as 37 members of the Upper House will conclude their term in April, vacating seats for the newly elected ones. A report by the news agency ANI suggests that among the 37 MPs, 26 have already been elected unopposed, and the election will be held for 11 seats.
Ahead of the polls, intense political manoeuvring was witnessed in Bihar and Odisha, with the return of hotel and resort politics. In Bihar, the opposition Grand Alliance moved its legislators to a hotel to avoid any situation of cross-voting. The Odisha Congress followed a similar pattern, as it shifted its MLAs to a resort in Bengaluru earlier. However, the party alleged that a poaching attempt was made against its MLAs.
In Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha along with his party colleague Ramnath Thakur. The BJP’s working president, Nitin Nabin, is also in the poll fray. Both are set to be elected unopposed.
Voting will begin at 9 am, and the results will be declared in the evening. Catch all the live updates here.
