A view of the logo of Election Commission of India at the headquarters in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit:
R.V. Moorthy
BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia, K.C. Venugopal of Congress among those in fray.
Elections to 19 Rajya Sabha seats spread over nine States, including polls in 18 that had been deferred due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in March, will be held on Friday.
MLAs who have been hospitalised with COVID-19 will be allowed to vote by postal ballot, according to an Election Commission of India instruction on Wednesday.
Apart from the 18 seats, which were vacated in April, the ECI on June 1 announced polls to six seats that would be vacated in June and July. Of these, five went uncontested, leaving one in Mizoram to go to the polls on Friday.
With Friday’s elections, the BJP’s position of the single largest party in the Upper House, with 75 members out of 245, is likely to get a boost.
In Andhra Pradesh, Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla, Nathwani Parimal, Pilli Subhaschandra Bose and Venkataramana Rao Mopidevi of the YSRCP and Varla Ramaiah of the Telugu Desam Party are in the