The MLAs of the three ruling parties and the BJP have reached Mumbai ahead of the elections.
Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states will be held on Friday amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts, prompting the Election Commission to appoint special observers and order videography of the entire exercise.
The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Friday released its second list, comprising seven candidates including MLA Zeeshan Siddique and two former Bharatiya Janata Party MPs, for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.
Amid talks of cross-voting, three of the 37 Congress MLAs in Maharashtra skipped a meeting called by the party ahead of the legislative council polls on Friday.
Thakor, who launched a vitriolic attack on the Congress after resigning from the assembly membership, said he voted for 'honest national leadership'.
The poll is scheduled for July 17 and the counting of votes will take place on July 20.
The Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday saw cross-voting by a BJP MLA while another party legislator claimed that she was prevented from voting.
'Things were not being heard. What we brought to the high command's notice. Had they taken any action at that time, then it would have not happened.'
The party has taken a very serious view of the party candidate getting just four votes while seven other MLAs voted for other parties' candidates, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons on Friday.
The MLAs who have been expelled for six years are Sanjay Pratap Jayaswal (Basti district), Madhuri Verma (Bahraich), Vijay Dube (Kushinagar), Mohammed Muslim (Tiloi-Amethi), Dil Nawaz Khan (Bulandshahar) and Nawab Kasim Ali Khan (Rampur).
uring the meeting at the Cecil Hotel in Shimla, discussions were being held and feedback taken from MLAs, sources said.
To keep their MLAs together, political parties are organising dinner meetings and arranging hotel stays for them ahead of the council elections, which are taking place just three months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
The Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party, which was stung by cross voting during the Presidential election on Sunday, has decided to set up a committee to look into the matter. Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told mediapersons in Bengaluru that the committee would go into the matter and appropriate action would be taken against MLAs who cross voted.
As many as 16 Congress MLAs backing YSR Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy cross-voted in favour of the no-confidence motion against Kiran Reddy government, which survived because of the support from Praja Rajyam Party and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.
If Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil drops a hint of supporting or opposing a particular coalition on the eve of polling on November 20, things may change overnight.
Rebel Himachal Pradesh Congress MLA Rajinder Rana on Saturday claimed that nine more party legislators 'feeling suffocated' due to Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's style of functioning are in touch with him as he called the chief minister 'liar number one'.
These Congress rebels, who had voted in favour of the BJP nominee in the Rajya Sabha polls, later abstained from voting on the Budget, defying a party whip.
Apprehending that some of its MLAs may not toe the party line, especially as BJP-backed Chandra had claimed support of at least two INLD MLAs, a dozen-odd legislators of the party were on Monday sent off to the hill station in Uttarakhand.
Taking moral responsibility for cross-voting in legislative council elections, all the 11 Bharatiya Janata Party members of legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir today resigned and authorised the party central leadership to decide their fates.
The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to its ally Sena (UBT)'s nominee Narvekar, party sources said. Eventually, Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted.
The results will be declared on July 20 in New Delhi.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said like other states, the BJP started the game of using money power, power of the government and muscle power to destabilise the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh but has failed.
'The Congress government is on its way out in Himachal Pradesh.'
The Congress has 40 MLAs while the BJP has 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents.
He said, according to the party constitution, a 3-member enquiry committee would be set up, which after going through their (suspended MLAs) replies to the notice.
The Congress on Friday suspended two of its legislators for voting for the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha biennial election for five seats in West Bengal.
The announcement from the Congress lawmaker brought fore cracks in the party, which on Tuesday lost the sole Rajya Sabha seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party and is apparently scrambling to keep its members together to prevent the fall of its government.
Cross-voting by Left and Congress MLAs on Friday helped Trinamool Congress gain an extra seat in West Bengal while a similar action by Congress MLAs in Andhra Pradesh saw the Telangana Rashtra Samithi making its debut in Rajya Sabha as high drama marked the polls to the upper House in the two states.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Himachal Pradesh assembly speaker's order disqualifying the six Congress rebels who had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in the state.
They were suspended for misbehaviour and shouting slogans in the House.
"Time will also take account of those registering cases and those getting them registered. Stopping the business of MLAs and allowing friends to loot, is this a change in the system?" he posed.
A case of criminal conspiracy, corruption practices and undue influence on election has been registered on the complaint of two Congress MLAs, police said on Sunday.
High drama was witnessed during the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet meeting on Saturday with ministers Jagat Negi and Rohit Thakur leaving midway following a 'heated debate' over policy decisions, sources said.
Amid the political uncertainty in Himachal Pradesh, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh on Friday asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party's work is better than that of the grand old party.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak said on Tuesday night that all the eight candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party have won in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state.
The sources said that Priyanka Gandhi remained in constant touch with the party president, the chief minister, ministers and all important leaders, and did not allow any laxity.
The returnees also included three independent MLAs, who too had landed in Panchkula on Tuesday after casting their votes in the Rajya Sabha election.
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