Rajya Sabha elections will be held for six public seats in Maharashtra, four in Rajasthan and Karnataka, and two in Haryana.

Of the 57 vacant seats, as many as 41 candidates were elected unopposed. The Rajya Sabha election is crucial given the presidential election scheduled for July 18.

Two union ministers – Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka and Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra – are also Rajya Sabha candidates in Friday’s polls.

Of the 41 candidates elected without opposition, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 17 members, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has 10, and regional parties have 14.

“We have appointed special observers in all four states. The whole process will be videotaped,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on June 9.

In Rajasthan, Congress named Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari to the upper house. The BJP has named former state minister Ghanshyam Tiwari as its candidate, in addition to supporting Zee Network’s Subhash Chandra, who is an independent candidate. In Haryana, Congress fielded candidate Ajay Maken for two seats. In addition to supporting media mogul Kartikeya Sharma, the BJP also has a presence in Kishan Lal Panwar.

In Maharashtra, six members will be elected to Rajya Sabha this time. However, the fight for the sixth seat is between Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar and BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik.