With the nomination process for elections to four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan having started on Tuesday, the ruling Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are looking for suitable candidates to be fielded amid an intense lobbying by the aspirants. Speculations were rife about the MLAs of both the parties being sent to the camps for securing their votes.
Chief Election Officer Praveen Gupta said no nomination papers were filed on the first day of the process for the biennial elections. The last date for filing of nominations is May 31, while the polls will be held on June 10. Each candidate in the State will require to have 41 first preference votes to win.
The Congress is likely to get a clear victory on two of the seats in view of its majority in the 200-member Assembly, where it has 108 seats. Of the 10 Rajya Sabha members from the State, the terms of BJP’s Om Prakash Mathur, K.J. Alphons, Ramkumar Verma and Harshvardhan Singh will end in July, necessitating the elections.
