Rajya Sabha polls: 5 SP MLAs hint at cross-voting in UP, Congress gets support of 2 BJP leaders in Karnataka

Voting took place for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh one seat.

As per the strength of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, both the ruling BJP and the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party had adequate numbers to send seven and three members to the Rajya Sabha. However, this scenario changed after BJP fielded businessman-turned-politician Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate. Seth was earlier a member of the Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP in 2019.

A few leaders of the Samajwadi Party, including the party's former chief whip Manoj Pandey, on Tuesday openly sided with the BJP, fuelling speculations that they cross-voted in the polls. As per reports, five MLAs of the Samajwadi Party backed the BJP candidate and met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as polling got underway.

If this remains the case, the result in one seat could be decided by cross-voting. The BJP might end up getting eight seats in Uttar Pradesh, restricting the Samajwadi Party to two seats.

Apart from Sanjay Seth, the BJP fielded RPN Singh, Tejveer Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sadhna Singh, and Naveen Jain from the state, while Samajwadi Party has fielded Alok Ranjan, Jaya Bachchan and Ramji Lal Suman.

To get elected to the Upper House of Parliament from the state of Uttar Pradesh, a candidate must get around 37 first-preference votes.

In Congress-ruled Karnataka, three MPs from Congress and one from the BJP are retiring. However, the BJP has allied with the Janata Dal (Secular) and ensured a contest among the five candidates for the four vacancies.

Out of the five candidates, three belong to Congress, while one each is from BJP and JD(S). As per reports, the candidature of JD(S)'s D Kupendra Reddy has made a contest inevitable for the fourth seat.

According to reports, BJP's ST Somashekar and Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) legislator G Janardhana Reddy cross-voted in favour of the Congress candidate on Tuesday.

Cross-voting was also reported in Himachal Pradesh, where voting was held for one Rajya Sabha seat, vacated by BJP national president JP Nadda. While the ruling Congress has fielded Abhishek Manu Singhvi from Himachal Pradesh, the BJP is represented by Harsh Mahajan.

According to reports, the state witnessed cross-voting by at least nine MLAs, who supported Mahajan.