BJP set to gain at the cost of Congress in RS polls

The contest for 55 seats in the Rajya Sabha is tilting in favour of the BJP except in Haryana where there will be no election as no extra candidate has been fielded by the BJP.


The BJP has fielded extra candidates in Gujarat, the home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, in Rajasthan and in Madhya Pradesh.

In Gujarat, the operation by the BJP has yielded results with 4 Congress MLAs resigning from the party and in Madhya Pradesh 22 Congress legislators have resigned bringing the Kamal Nath government to the brink of collapse.

Amit Chavda, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President, accused the BJP of using money power accumulated through corrupt means to buy MLAs while the BJP has asserted that the problem is within the Gujarat Congress as the party is going through an internal rift.

In Gujarat, where the Congress was set to win 2 seats, it will now have to contend with just one after 4 of its legislators decided to quit.

In Rajasthan also, the BJP is trying to fish in troubled waters after the Congress announced two candidates. The BJP has fielded an extra candidate and now there will be an election for the third seat.

Bhupendra Yadav, who comes from the state, when asked, said, "Lets see, there are problems in the Congress," without revealing the game plan. The BJP has fielded Onkar Singh Lakhawat as the fourth candidate while Congress leaders maintain that there is no risk in Rajasthan.

The Congress can defeat the BJP in Jharkhand where it has fielded the third candidate to tap in the floating votes. The BJP needs 27 votes but has only 26 and the game will depend on the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU). The Congress in-charge of Jharkhand R.P.N. Singh is confident that the Congress candidate will sail through. The Congress has 18 MLAs and with surplus votes of the JMM and if the AJSU decides not to vote for the ruling coalition, the BJP candidate Deepak Prakash is likely to bite the dust. JMM leader Shibu Soren is set to go to the Rajya Sabha.

In Bihar, there is no contest as also in Chhattisgarh where the Congress is set to win two seats.

In Maharashtra, the party has fielded one candidate Rajiv Satav who is likely to win while in Madhya Pradesh there is still a chance of the Congress winning two seats if they can manage to get back some of the rebel MLAs into the party fold, but the BJP has forced the contest going to the wire by fielding the 4th candidate.

In West Bengal, the joint candidate of the CPM and the Congress can sail through if there is no cross voting as the TMC backed independent candidate Dinesh Bajaj is in the fray. There are 5 seats in West Bengal and six candidates are in the fray.

In Haryana, the Congress' Deepender Hooda is set to be elected unopposed. IANS