Jharkhand RS polls: Counting of votes begins

Counting of votes in the election for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand began this evening after the Election Commission rejected complaints from the Congress and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) that a JVM MLA did not show his ballot to the party's polling agent.

"The counting has begun," said a senior official of the state assembly secretariat.

The JVM suspended its MLA Prakash Ram from the party for not showing the ballot paper to the party polling agent before casting his vote as per norm.

All the 80 MLAs cast their votes, according to assembly sources.

Three candidates - BJP's Sameer Uranv and Pradeep Kumar Sonthalia and Congress's Dheeraj Sahu are in the fray for the two Rajya Sabha seats.

In the house of 80, the ruling BJP has 43 MLAs and its ally AJSU 4, while opposition Congress has 7, JMM has 18 MLAs. JVP (P) has 2, BSP 1, MCC 1, CPIML(L) 1 and Independents 3.