Guwahati: Voting for 13 Rajya Sabha seats across six states will be held today.
Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Tripura, and Punjab are the six states voting today.
An official statement read, “The term of service of 13 members of the Rajya Sabha elected from six states is slated to expire on their retirement in April 2022.”
In Assam, the ruling BJP has nominated Pabitra Margherita and Rwngwra Narzary, both of whom are sponsored by the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL). Only one candidate has been nominated by Congress.
The ruling LDF has nominated CPI (M) state committee member A A Rahim and CPI leader P Santhosh Kumar in Kerala, where three seats are vacant. Jebi Mather, the head of the opposition Congress’s women’s branch, has been nominated.
Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, and Sanjeev Arora of the Aam Aadmi Party were elected unopposed in Punjab after the Opposition fielded no candidates for the 117-member parliament.
Dr. Manik Saha, the state president of the ruling BJP in Tripura, has been nominated for the seat. Bhanu Lal Saha, a senior CPI (M) leader, has been named by the Left Front.
Because the Congress did not nominate a candidate in Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP has 43 seats in the 68-member assembly, BJP candidate Prof Sikander Kumar won unopposed.
S Phangnon Konyak was elected unopposed in Nagaland, where there is no opposition. As a result, she has become the state’s first female legislator in Parliament’s Upper House.
Meanwhile, the votes will be counted after 5 pm today.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken steps to ensure a free and fair election by appointing observers to closely oversee the entire process.
While making the arrangements, the election board also instructed the Chief Secretaries to appoint a senior officer from the state to ensure that Covid-19 containment measures are followed.