By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, May 24 (IANS): As the dates of Rajya Sabha polls on four seats have been announced, speculation of political fencing in Rajasthan is once again doing the rounds.

Political whispers have become stronger after the BJP announced to field its candidates on two seats.

The polls on four seats will be held on June 10.

Presently, the Congress has 108 seats. Here 82 votes are required to win two seats. So Congress' victory on two seats is confirmed. Out of the 108 seats, 82 votes will help win two seats and the Congress will be left with 26 excess votes left, which means it can go for the third seat provided it manages 15 more votes. The Rajya Sabha polls require 41-41 votes for the first seat.

In such a situation, there are 13 independent MLAs, while one of the Rashtriya Lok Dal is currently in alliance with the Congress. The CPI-M and the Bharatiya Tribal Party of India have two votes each. The BTP recently announced its divorce with the state Congress.

So all eyes are on the BJP as to how it is going to cash in on the situation. The saffron party has 71 MLAs. So its victory is confirmed in one seat, while for the second seat, it is 11 votes short. Even before the nomination filing, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore announced that the BJP would not allow the second seat to go vacant. He said that the BJP has 30 surplus votes. "How those 30 votes will be used will be revealed when the time comes". Rathore claimed that the BJP could win the second seat due to the Congress's tussle.

Meanwhile, Congress sources told IANS that chances of political camping cannot be refuted at this time as each vote matters for the ruling government.

Meanwhile, as the BJP leaders have announced to field contestants on two seats, there are chances that MLAs shall once again be taken to remote hotels to keep their share safe for the party concerned, said sources.

The election of Rajya Sabha is done on the basis of the number of MLAs won by political parties. For example, the Rajya Sabha elections were held in 2016. At that time, the BJP was ruling the state and on the basis of the number of BJP MLAs, its candidates won four seats. The Congress had not fielded its candidate at that time but supported Kamal Morarka as an independent.

Hence, on the basis of vote count, Om Prakash Mathur, K.J. Alphons, Ramkumar Verma and Harshvardhan Singh were elected. However, now there is a Congress government in the state and the math of votes has also changed. The Rajya Sabha elections are held on the basis of a proportional method and this time four seats are vacant. In this sense, each candidate needs 41 first preference votes to win.