Ministers like Anand Sharma (Commerce and Industry), Jairam Ramesh (Environment and Forests) and Ambika Soni (Information and Broadcasting) are expected to return to the Rajya Sabha smoothly but the presence of independent candidates in states like Karnataka, Bihar and Rajasthan may upset the prospects of some other candidates.
Vijay Mallya, an independent candidate from Karnataka, is likely to oust Congress’ businessman-turned politician T V Maruthi in the state. In Rajasthan, Congressman Santosh Bagrodia, contesting as an independent, might cut away some votes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In Bihar, another businessman-turned-political aspirant, B G Uday, is likely to dent the Congress votebank. Uday’s chances looked brighter after Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) said it would give a free hand to its five MLAs to vote for the candidate of their choice in Bihar.
The biennial elections for 56 Rajya Sabha seats will take place on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Congress today issued a whip to its MLAs to vote for party-backed independent candidate Tara Ranjan Patnaik in Orissa. It is yet to issue a whip in Bihar, where it has 10 MLAs.
Various political camps are also not taking any risks of their MLAs getting ‘hijacked’ by rival groups. After the BJP locked its Rajasthan MLAs in a tourist lodge, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa took its MLAs to hotels in Puri to prevent them from being influenced by the Opposition. The MLAs are also not being allowed to use mobile phones to contact anybody. In Jaipur, 67 BJP MLAs have been put up in a hotel where legal luminary Ram Jethmalani, the BJP candidate from the state, is interacting with them.
Although the BJD has fielded three candidates, it is not sure about the victory of the third one. With 103 legislators in the 147-member assembly, it requires eight more first-preference votes.
In Rajasthan, Congressman Santosh Bagrodia is banking on the anger of many BJP MLAs, who are upset over the party’s nomination of Jethmalani from their state. In the 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly, the ruling Congress has 102 members, BJP ,79; CPI-M ,3; JD-U, 1; Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, 1 and SP, 1. There are 13 Independents, of whom 10 are supporting the Congress.
In Rajasthan, CPI-M legislative leader Amra Ram, with three MLAs has already announced abstaining from voting, as he termed both the Congress and the BJP as “anti-people and anti-labour”.
