Polling for Rajya Sabha elections progressing
Bhopal, Mar 28 (UNI) Polling for the biennial election to fill up three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh began in the Vidhan Sabha premises here this morning.
Vidhan Sabha Speaker Ishwardas Rohani was the first to exercise his franchise followed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who remained present at the scene for one-and-half hours. Most BJP legislators cast their vote together.
Seven of eight SP legislators reached the Vidhan Sabha to cast their votes together. This included Mr Kishor Samrite, who had levelled bribery allegations against the Congress.
BJP MLA Anchal Sonkar reached to exercise his franchise on wheel chair.
Three BJP candidates -- Ms Maya Singh, Mr Prabhat Jha and Mr Raghunandan Sharma -- and one Congress-supported independent candidate Vivek Tankha are in the fray to fill up the three seats.
The biennial elections were necessitated as the tenure of three Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh Mr Suresh Pachouri, Mr Obaidullah Azmi (both Congress) and Ms Maya Singh (BJP) is ending in April.
In
a
House
of
231,
including
a
nominated
member,
besides
the
BJP
(166)
and
Congress
(41),
the
Samajwadi
Party
has
eight
MLAs,
Gondwana
Gantantra
Party
three,
Rashtriya
Samata
Dal
two,
Bahujan
Samaj
Party
two,
Nationalist
Congress
Party
one,
Janata
Dal
(U)
one,
CPI
(M)
one,
and
Independents
two
UNI
AG-PS
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