Rajya Sabha Elections: High stakes and cross-voting speculations grip 3 states - 5 key things to expect today

livemint.com:

Rajya Sabha Polls: Elections will be held to elect 15 Rajya Sabha candidates in three states - Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh - on February 27. Polling will be held for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Karnataka and one seat in Himachal Pradesh from 9 am to 4 pm. The counting will also be held today from 5 pm onwards.

There are reports of the possibility of cross-voting, especially in Uttar Pradesh and hence, the parties are keeping a keen watch on its MLAs. Forty-one candidates in the 56 seats falling vacant were elected unopposed to the Upper House. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), President JP Nadda, Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradesh, Union IT Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw, and former Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi were among the 41 candidates who have been elected unopposed to the Upper House.

JP Nadda was elected unopposed from Gujarat. Vaishnaw was elected for a second time to Rajya Sabha with support from the ruling Biju Janata Dal from Odisha. Even Minister of State, Information and Broadcasting, L Murugan, was elected unopposed from Madhya Pradesh.

Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed from Rajasthan. In Bihar, JD(U) leader Sanjay Jha had been elected, while in West Bengal, four Trinamool Congress candidates - Mamata Thakur, Sagarika Ghose, Sushmita Devi and Md Nadimul Haque were elected unopposed. The BJP has fielded eight candidates, and the opposition Samajwadi Party three for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats for Uttar Pradesh, the BJP-ruled state.

Both the BJP and the SP have numbers to send seven and three members, respectively, unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. But, BJP, by fielding Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate, has forced a competitive faceoff on one seat. A candidate needs nearly 37