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Voting for the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh began in the state assembly complex on Friday morning.
As the voting process began at 9 AM, BJP members along with the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reached the assembly premises here to cast their votes.
Congress members along with the former chief minister Kamal Nath also reached the assembly complex for voting.
The first vote was cast by Chouhan, followed by state Home Minister Narottam Mishra.
All the members were seen wearing masks and standing in a queue maintaining mandatory social distance in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The BJP has fielded and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and former professor of a government college Sumer Singh Solanki for the Rajya Sabha polls. The Congress has fielded party veteran Digvijaya Singh and Dalit leader Phool Singh Baraiya for the crucial elections.
The numbers
For winning a seat in the Rajya Sabha polls, a candidate needs 52 votes and as per the numerical strength of the two parties, BJP is set to win two seats as it has 107 MLAs of its own and enjoys the support of two MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one MLA of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and two Independents, party sources said.
The BJP has the support of 112 in the 230- member Assembly whose effective strength is 206. Scindia and Solanki, thus, can get the 52 votes each needed for victory. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly, 24 seats are currently vacant.
Congress has been left with 92 MLAs after 22 of its legislators, including six ministers, quit the party in support of Scindia’s move to join the BJP. Thus, Congress is set to win a single seat out of the total three for which polls are being held, sources added.
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) had asked 54 of its 92 MLAs to cast their first preference vote for Digvijaya Singh. The former chief minister needs 52 votes to get elected to Rajya Sabha for the second consecutive term. Baraiya, placed after Singh in the pecking order by his party, does not have the numbers on his side to win.
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