Rajya Sabha: Cross-Voting In UP And Karnataka, Polling Ends In Himachal

Manoj Pandey, a leader close to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, has resigned as chief whip from the party as the Rajya Sabha polls in UP are underway.

Karnataka MLA ST Somashekar cross-voted for the Congress in the Rajya Sabha elections, according to BJP chief whip Doddanagouda G. Patil on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu after casting his vote said the MLAs have voted as per the ideology of the party.

Polling for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh, which began at 9 am on Tuesday, ended with Congress MLA from Chintpurni Sudershan Babloo casting the last vote.

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said that party will take action against the leaders who were involved in cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Samajwadi Party MLAs: Abhay Singh, Rakesh Singh, Rakesh Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, and Manoj Pandey met CM Yogi Adityanath today.

According to Election Commission officials, 214 MLAs in Karnataka had voted for the four Rajya Sabha seats as of 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Congress has 133 MLAs (excluding the Speaker), while the BJP and JD(S) have 66 and 19 members, respectively, in the 223-member House.

On Tuesday, voting commenced at 9 am and will continue until 4 pm. Counting of votes is scheduled to begin at 5 pm.