This Article is From Jun 25, 2012

Rajya Sabha poll for three vacancies from Kerala to be held today

Four aspirants are in the fray for three vacancies to the Rajya Sabha from Kerala for which elections are being held today.

Going by the strength of the rival coalitions in the Assembly, the ruling Congress-led UDF could win two seats, and the LDF one.

In the 140-member House, the UDF has 73 MLAs, including the Speaker, and the LDF 67.

Sitting Congress member P J Kurien is one of the contenders.

The UDF has put up Joy Abraham of Kerala Congress (M) as its contestant for the second seat it could claim.

LDF has fielded C P Narayanan of CPI (M) as its 'first candidate' and C N Chandran of CPI as the 'second candidate.'

Mr Chandran will get through only in the event of a cross-voting from the UDF camp, which the ruling coalition discounts as it is not facing any political exigency.

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