Jaipur: The Congress has won two seats while the Bhartiya Janta Party managed the remaining one seat in the Rajya Sabha elections held for the three vacant seats from Rajasthan on Friday.
Neeraj Dangi and K.C. Venugopal from the Congress and Rajendra Gehlot from the BJP were the winners.
Congratulations to Congress national general secretary KC Venugopal ji and Neeraj Dangi ji for winning #RajyaSabhaElections from #Rajasthan. It is a victory of the ideology, policies and programmes of Congress Party under the leadership of CP Smt. #SoniaGandhi ji.
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) June 19, 2020
The Rajasthan assembly has 200 MLAs – the Congress (107), the Bhartiya Janta Party (72), the Bharatiya Tribal Party (2), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (2), the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (3), Rashtriya Lok Dal (1), and the independent MLAs (13)
The Congress party had claimed the support of the independents along with those from CPI(M) and BTP. The MLA from RLD holds a ministerial position in Gehlot’s cabinet.
The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) had extended support to the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Both the BJP and the Congress have fielded two candidates each with the BJP nominating Rajendra Gehlot and Onkar Singh Lakhawat and the Congress nominating Neeraj Dangi and K.C. Venugopal for the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats.
The BJP had first nominated only Rajendra Gehlot but nominated Lakhawat too, on the very last day.
After BJP fielded its second candidate, Congress alleged that attempts were being made to lure its MLAs and supporting independent MLAs.
Also read: Rajasthan: Impending RS Polls Set off Alarm Bells as Gehlot Makes off With MLAs
Subsequently, both the Congress and the BJP cloistered their respective support base of MLAs in hotels.
Rajasthan has 10 seats in the Rajya Sabha. Seven of them were already occupied: six by the BJP and one by the Congress. On Friday, polling was held for the remaining three seats.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is a Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. He was elected unopposed last year after the seat fell vacant due to the death of BJP MP and former Rajasthan BJP president Madan Lal Saini.