Elections for 19 Rajya Sabha seats across eight states is underway starting from 9 AM on Friday. Four seats are up for grab in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two from Jharkhand, and one each from Mizoram, Manipur, and Meghalaya.

TheElection Commission of India will be announcing the results today itself. TheRajya Sabha polls for 55 seats were scheduled to take place on March 26, butthe EC had deferred the elections because of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. 37candidates have already been elected to the Upper House without a contest.

The elections will be held between 9 am and 4 pm today and theElection Commission is expected to begin the counting of votes from 5 pm.

Forthe past few days, hectic parleys have been going on within the parties,especially the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP). Rajasthan Congresshad accused its main rival BJP of trying to poach MLAs, following which thegrand old party had shifted its party MLAs and the Independent legislatures toJW Marriott hotel in Jaipur. The BJP too shifted its elected representativesfor "training" to a hotel in Jaipur on June 16.