NEW DELHI: The BJP won the elections for 15 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. When BJP won 10 seats, Congress and Samajwadi Party won three and two respectively. With this, BJP won 30 out of the 56 Rajya Sabha seats. Party candidates were earlier elected unopposed in 20 seats.

Cross voting had taken place. In UP, Samajwadi Party and Congress MLAs voted for BJP in Himachal and the BJP MLAs voted for Congress in Karnataka. Putting the Congress government in crisis, BJP's Harsh Mahajan defeated party candidate and national spokesperson Manu Abhishek Singhvi in Himachal. In UP, BJP won eight out of the ten seats and Samajwadi Party won two. In Karnataka, Congress got three seats and BJP one.

Coup in Himachal, dramatic
Manu Abhishek Singhvi, who ensured victory in Himachal, suffered a setback when six of the 40 Congress MLAs and three independents who supported the government voted for Harsh Mahajan. Singhvi got 34 votes. Harsh also got 34 votes of BJP’s 25 votes and nine cross votes. Th winner was then announced through a draw. The nine who cross-voted were shifted to Haryana by BJP under the security of CRPF jawans.

Chief Whip votes for BJP in UP
In UP, BJP's R P N Singh, Naveen Jain, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhana Singh, Sudhamshu Trivedi, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh and Amar Pal Maurya along with the eighth candidate Sanjay Seth won. SP's Jaya Bachchan and Ramji Lal Suman won while Alok Ranjan lost.

In UP, we saw the political moves made by the BJP, which has the strength to win seven out of ten candidates, for the eighth candidate, Sanjay Seth, were seen. In a shocker to the Samajwadi Party, its chief whip Manoj Kumar Pandey resigned just before the polls. Eight MLAs, including Manoj Pandey, stayed away from party president Akhilesh Yadav's party. Among them Manoj Pandey, Rakesh Pandey, Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Vinod Chaturvedi, Pooja Pal, Ashutosh Maurya, Jagadish Narayan Rai of SP-allied SBSP and Umashankar, the lone MLA of BSP, voted for the BJP. SP needed 111 votes to win three candidates, but its strength reduced to 106 as two of them are in jail. The ally Congress has two MLAs.

Setback for BJP in Karnataka
In Karnataka, five candidates contested four seats. Congress’ Ajay Maken (47 votes), Syyed Naseer Hussain (46 votes), G C Chandrasekhar (46), BJP’s Narayansa Banthige (47) won. JDs D Kupendra Reddy was defeated. When BJP's S T Somashekhar cross voted for Congress candidate, Sivaram Hebbar stayed away from voting.

Headache for Congress in Himachal
The future of congress government under the leadership of Sukhvinder Sukhu in Himachal Pradesh hangs in balance due to the unexpected defeat of Abhishek Singhvi. Six from the 40 MLAs, three MLAs who supported the government cross voted for the win of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan. The situation of the government losing majority in the Lok Sabha will be a headache for the congress with the elections round the corner.

35 seats are needed for absolute majority in the 68-member assembly in Himachal Pradesh. The government has the support of Congress’ 40 and three independents. With the Rajya Sabha election, it reduced to 34. The BJP which was limited to 25 seats, was able to increase the support to 34. BJP leader Jairam Thakur demanded the resignation of Sukhwinder Sukhu saying Singhvi’s defeat lost confidence in the government. When the budget session is about to start, the opposition is likely to bring a no-confidence motion. So, the coming days would be crucial for the congress.

Apart from Karnataka and Telangana, Himachal is the only state ruled by the congress. The factional move formed in the party against Rahul Gandhi’s close aide Sukhwinder reflected in the Rajya Sabha elections. It has been hinted that after understanding that Himachal is not safe, former congress chief Sonia Gandhi was made Rajya Sabha member through Rajasthan, where the party is not in power. The central leadership made Sukhwinder the chief minister after rejecting Prathiba Singh, wife of senior MP and former chief minister Veerbhadra Singh. Her son Vikramaditya Singh came forward against the stand of the central leadership on Ayodhya issue.