As the Rajya Sabha election results emerged, Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, and Congress's Randeep Surjewala, were among the 16 candidates elected. The BJP clinched victories in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana, with the Congress heaving a sigh of relief after getting the elections over the line without cross-voting in Rajasthan.
Maharashtra's ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance suffered a jolt as the BJP won three of the six Rajya Sabha seats in the state. The BJP winners include Union minister Piyush Goyal, former state minister Anil Bonde, and Dhananjay Mahadik. Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, NCP's Praful Patel, and Congress's Imran Pratapgarhi also won.
The Congress suffered a major setback in Haryana where BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar and the saffron party-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma won the two seats for which elections were held, while the grand old party's Ajay Maken, a former union minister, lost. Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-voted for Sharma, a media baron who had entered the poll far as an independent candidate supported by the BJP and its ally JJP.
In Karnataka, the ruling party won all the three Rajya Sabha seats it contested out of the four that went to polls. The main opposition Congress managed to win only one of the two seats for which its nominees were in the fray, while the JD(S) drew a blank. Sitharaman and Ramesh have been re-elected from Karnataka. There was suspense over the outcome of the fight for the fourth seat, which witnessed a tight contest between all the three major political parties none of which had enough votes for an easy win.
In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress won three of the four seats, and the BJP one. BJP-backed independent nominee and media baron Subhash Chandra fell by the wayside. Chandra, who had won the last RS election as an Independent from Haryana, tried his luck from Rajasthan. Interestingly, BJP MLA Shobharani Kushwah cross-voted in favour of Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari. The BJP promptly suspended her from the party's primary membership.
The counting for election from Maharashtra was held up for more than six hours, as the BJP questioned the validity of ballots cast by three MLAs of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, alleging that rules were violated. The MVA too sought to invalidate two votes, one by a BJP MLA and another by an Independent. The BJP challenged the votes cast by cabinet ministers Jitendra Awhad (NCP), Yashomati Thakur (Congress) and Sena legislator Suhas Kande. The saffron party alleged that Awhad and Thakur handed over their ballots to their party agents instead of only showing them the ballots, while Kande showed his ballot to two different agents.
