Rajya Sabha polls: Brisk voting in Himachal; 64 out of 68 MLAs cast votes

Shimla: Polling is underway for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh.

The polling began at 9 am and Independent MLA from Hamipur Ashish was the first to cast his vote.

The polling was brisk and 64 out of the 68 members had cast their votes by 11 am.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh and Congress MLA from Chintpurni Sudershan Babloo who fell ill on Monday are yet to cast their votes.

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur has said that it was the democratic right of the MLAs to vote and it was not necessary that the candidate be elected unopposed.

"We have fielded the candidate gauging the situation and hope that all MLAs would exercise their conscious vote," he added.

The BJP has fielded Harsh Mahajan against Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Mahajan, a three-time Congress MLA and former minister, had resigned from the party in September 2022 ahead of the assembly polls and joined the BJP.

The Congress has a clear majority with 40 out of the 68 MLAs and the support of three independent MLAs.

Despite the fact that the BJP, with 25 MLAs, is far behind in the number game, it has forced a contest by fielding Mahajan against Singhvi.

The Congress had issued a whip to its MLAs to vote for Singhvi following which the BJP had accused the ruling Congress of issuing whip to their members to pressurise them and maintained that the MLAs have been elected democratically and have the right to vote as per their wish.

The BJP candidate has sent a complaint to the chief election commissioner drawing his attention to the three line whip issued by the Congress to vote for the party candidate.

In his complaint, Mahajan said that such a whip is not only unethical but also against the conducting of elections to the Rajya Sabha as it will affect the decision making ability of the MLAs.