JAIPUR: Elections to the four seats of Rajya sabha today began at the Rajasthan Assembly premises here.
Leader of opposition Rameshwar Dusi cast the first vote followed by former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the assembly spokesperson said. In the house of 200, the ruling BJP has 160 members and Congress 24. National Peoples Party has four, BSP has three, National Unionist Zamindara Party has two and seven are independents.
Union minister Venkaiah Naidu, BJP's national Vice President Om Prakash Mathur, former RBI official Ramkumar Sharma and member of erstwhile Dungarpur royal family Harsh Vardhan Singh are the BJP candidates whereas Kamal Morarka filed nomination papers as independent candidate.
BJP has claimed the support of two legislators of National Unionist Zamindara Party and three independent MLAs who attended its training programme yesterday at a hotel.
Congress's state unit announced its support to former union minister Morarka on the directions of AICC and issued a whip to the party MLAs to vote for him. It is expecting support of independent MLAs and other non-BJP parties. Due to presence of Morarka, polling has become necessary. The results will be declared today .
Out of 200, 199 MLAs would cast their vote in the RS poll as Kushwaha has been in jail since October, 2014.