Rajya Sabha elections 2018 voting today; SP backs BSP: Top 10 developments In Uttar Pradesh, BJP's decision to field an extra candidate has transformed the routine election into a prestige contest with the SP and the Congress backing the BSP
Voting for the Rajya Sabha elections 2018 in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, commenced on Friday. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is also in the fray for one of the UP Rajya Sabha seats. With the drubbing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received recently in the state bypolls for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats, there is only one question hanging in the air: Can the BJP snatch a ninth seat or will the newfound bonhomie between former arch-rivals Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party prevail? In UP, the SP and the Congress are backing Mayawati's candidate. The SP is keen to ensure a clean vote transfer because that could ease the way to an alliance with the BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against the Narendra Modi-BJP electoral juggernaut. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is said to be supporting the Congress' candidate. In a setback for Mayawati, however, as voting got underway BSP MLA Anil Singh told news agencies that he voted for the BJP. "I have voted for BJP, I don't know about the rest," Singh told news agency ANI. The Rajya Sabha will have 58 vacancies in April. For the 58 Rajya Sabha seats to be filled, 33 candidates from 10 states have been elected unanimously. Meanwhile, voting for the remaining 25 seats is being held