Rajya Sabha

Incidentally, all the four members nominated to the Rajya Sabha are from southern states. While Usha is from Kerala, Ilaiyaraaja hails from Tamil Nadu, Heggade belongs to Karnataka and Prasad is from Andhra Pradesh. Government sources said that the Rajya Sabha nominations is another instance of the Narendra Modi-led government recognising outstanding Indians who have made a mark in diverse fields.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has stated that as per the planning and strategy of the party, all 3 candidates from the BJP have won. "I thank all the MLAs for voting for the BJP," he said. BJP candidates were Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, film actor-turned-politician Jaggesh and former MLC Leher Singh, while the Congress had fielded former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.

Counting of votes for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana was put on hold on Friday after the BJP candidate and an Independent nominee backed by the saffron camp urged the Election Commission to cancel the votes of two Congress MLAs. BJP nominee Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma wrote to the EC alleging that Congress MLAs -- Kiran Choudhary and B.B. Batra -- showed their ballot papers to unauthorised persons after marking them.

"Sachin Pilot is a hardworking person and a big opportunity has come his way now. If this opportunity is missed today, he will not be able to become the Chief Minister till 2028," Chandra said at a press conference here on Tuesday. Chandra also claimed that he was a good friend of Sachin Pilot's father, the late Rajesh Pilot. He said that apart from the BJP, he has the support of nine MLA

According to party sources, the photograph is apparently recent since Hashmi is seen felicitating Pratapgarhi with a bouquet. Imran Pratapgarhi's candidature has already drawn protests in the Congress circles with most party veterans claiming him to be an undeserving candidate. Pratapgarhi had earlier waded into controversy when an audio clip of a function went viral on the social media in which he is heard singing paeans to mafia don Mukhtar Ansari.

This is the same hotel which hosted Congress' Chintan Shivir, however, Congress concerns seem to be escalating as six Congress MLAs are yet to join the political fencing and have missed their Friday deadline. It needs to be mentioned here that the BJP has supported Subhas Chandra as its second candidate for the RS seat which has heightened the worries of the Congress and thus it has taken its MLAs for political fencing to Udaipur.

The BJP nominees were accompanied by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, state president Swatantra Dev Singh and two deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, when they filed their papers at the Vidhan Bhawan. The BJP candidates, who filed their nomination papers on Tuesday, include Laxmikant Bajpai, Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, Surendra Nagar, Babu Ram Nishad, Sangeeta Yadav, Darshana Singh, Dr K. Laxman and Mithilesh Kumar.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurapa, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel were present at the time of the submission of nomination. Yediyurappa said: "State BJP thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to contest from Karnataka."

Biennial elections for 57 Rajya Sabha seats will be held across 15 states on June 10. The Congress has nominated Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan from Chhattisgarh, Ajay Maken from Haryana, Jairam Ramesh from Karnataka, Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh and P. Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu.

The party has denied the ticket to Union Steel Minister RCP Singh -- considered as BJP sympathiser in the JD-U. Hence, he was in the "target list" of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other party leaders like national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh a.k.a. Lalan Singh, JD-U parliamentary board president Upendra Kushwaha and party's state president Umesh Kushwaha.