As the voting began for 25 Rajya Sabha seats in six states of India on Friday, reports of BSP MLA and SP MLA cross voting for BJP-backed candidates have surfaced.

As per media reports, Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) MLA Anil Kumar Singh has cross voted in favour of the BJP nominee in Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha Elections.

As per NDTV news report, MLA Anil Singh said he voted for the BJP. “I have voted for BJP, I don’t know about the rest,” he said and declared that “I am with Maharajji”, while referring to Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath.

According to The Indian Express news report, Samajwadi Party MLA from Hardoi, Nitin Agarwal, also voted for the BJP candidates.

Nitin’s father Naresh Agarwal had joined the BJP earlier this month. Nitin said that people of UP will give befitting reply to SP-BSP alliance.

While talking to media, Nitin said that it is very unfortunate that SP prefers a person who entertains the society (Jaya Bachchan) over a person who serves the society (Naresh Agarwal) and added that all nine BJP candidates would win.

Voting began at 9 am on Friday, There are a total of 31 contenders for the seats in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

Of the 58 seats from 16 states which will fall vacant in April this year, 33 candidates have already been elected unopposed in 10 states.

Biennial elections are being held in the assemblies of the six states because there is one additional contender for the seats in every state.

In Uttar Pradesh, there are 11 contenders for 10 Rajya Sabha seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 9 candidates while Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded one each.

In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has fielded four candidates for the five RS seats. Abhishek Manu Singhvi is the candidate for the Congress while Left Front has nominated Rabin Deb.

In Karnataka, the ruling Congress has nominated three candidates while the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) have nominated one each. The state has four Rajya Sabha seats.

The battle in Telangana is between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Congress for three seats. While TRS has named three candidates, the Congress has named one.

Also read | UP Rajya Sabha Elections: BJP 8, SP 1; close fight for 10th seat

Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, which have 2 and 1 seat, respectively, will see a contest between the BJP and the Congress.

Voting will end at 4 pm on Friday. Counting of the votes will commence at 5 pm and the results are expected to be announced by evening.