SAHIL BHAT
OCT 24: With the National Conference claiming to have successful outcome at all four seats in Rajya Sabha Polls and BJP confident in emerging victorious on the fourth seat, the voting on Rajya Sabha Elections is in full swing in Jammu and Kashmir.
More than 50 MLAs have cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha elections as of now whereof 28 are from the National Conference, 20 from the BJP, and one each from the PDP and Congress.
Notably, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was the first MLA to cast ballot.
The voting commenced at 9:00 am with MLAs arriving at the Legislative Assembly complex to exercise franchise at three polling booths set up inside the premises.
It is learnt that the Voting will continue until 4:00 pm, and counting is scheduled to begin at 5:00 pm.
National Conference is expected to have command over three seats, the contest for the fourth seat remains grim. Besides, the BJP’s advantage on the fourth seat diminished after Congress, PDP, and independent MLA Shabir Kulley announced to cast ballot in favour of National Conference.
NC candidates Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan and Sajjad Kichloo are likely to win first two seats, as each is expected to secure 57 votes against the BJP’s 28. For the third seat combined polls are held where three candidates – Gurwinder Singh Oberoi, Imran Dar of the National Conference, and Sat Sharma of the BJP will lock horns. The two candidates with the highest number of votes in the combined polls will be declared as victorious.
