New Delhi: The Election Commission of India is conducting polls for 24 Rajya Sabha seats in the country today, which are postponed due to Covid- 19 pandemic which was earlier scheduled in March.

The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for the voting in view of the pandemic. Every MLA will be screened for body temperature and will have to stick to safety measures like face masks and social distancing. Legislators having a fever or showing other symptoms will be kept in a separate waiting room. Elections will be held on four seats each from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two from Jharkhand and one each from the northeastern states of Meghalaya and Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. The voting will begin at 9 am. The toughest fight is over one seat in Gujarat, one in Rajasthan, and one in Madhya Pradesh.

In February, the Election Commission had announced elections to fill 55 seats across 17 states. In March, 37 candidates across 10 states were elected unopposed. The elections to the remaining seats, due on March 26, were deferred as the process would have involved huge gatherings. On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown. The build-up to the elections, in which seats from 10 states are at stake, was marked by a resurgence of resort politics, resignations, switching sides and allegations of bribery. In two states, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Congress whisked away its flock, accusing the BJP of attempts to buy its MLAs. The drama was more elaborate in Gujarat, where the BJP had fought a pitched battle to grab the seat of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel three years ago, and narrowly missed. A comfortable majority in the Rajya Sabha is crucial for the BJP to pilot bills through the upper house. The NDA needs around 30 more seats to have majority in the upper house.

Presently the strength of the political parties in Rajya Sabha is NDA has 91 of the 245 Rajya Sabha seats, the UPA has 61. The other opposition and the non-aligned parties together have 68 seats. The prominent candidates in today’s election include Shakti Singh Gohil and Bharat Singh Solanki from Gujarat, Jyothiraditya Scindia and Digvijay Singh from Madhya Pradesh and KC Venugopal from Rajasthan.