RS POLLS: BLOW TO CONG IN HIMACHAL

Abhishek Singhvi defeated in the hill state , BJP wins 8 out of 10 in UP , Congress sweeps Karnataka

- RAHUL CHHABRA

The BJP-led NDA won 10 Rajya Sabha seats out of the 15 for which voting was held across three states on Tuesday, scoring a moral victory over I.N.D.I.A whose candidates faced shock defeats due to cross-voting. While the NDA benefitted from cross-voting in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, it suffered a setback in Karnataka where a party MLA supported the Congress nominee.

In the process of winning the tightly contested lone RS seat in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP virtually managed to demonstrate that the Congress government had slipped into minority with 9 crossvotes being cast in favour of the saffron outfit's candidate.

Like on earlier occasions, the current Rajya Sabha elections in the three states turned out to be an opportunity for the BJP to expose cracks in the rival camp and winning support for its nominees from members of the rival INDI Alliance parties, including Congress and Samajwadi Party.

By the end of the day, the BJP seemed to have emerged stronger from the RS polling as its floor management gave it an upper hand in mind games just weeks ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections.