Chandigarh, Jun 9 (PTI) The Haryana Congress MLAs have left a resort in Chattisgarh's Raipur and are expected to reach here just hours before the polling for the Rajya Sabha elections begins on Friday, sources said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP-JJP MLAs remain lodged at a resort here for the second day as the contest for one of the two seats going to the polls sharpened.

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The Congress had shifted its MLAs to Raipur a week ago fearing poaching of its legislators. Sources said they left the resort there on Thursday evening and are expected to reach Chandigarh a few hours later.

Senior party leader Bhupinder Hooda was in Delhi over the past a few days and reached here on Thursday evening.

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Party MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi did not go to Raipur as he is reportedly upset with the party for ignoring him in the recent reshuffle in its state unit.

He had lobbied for the post of the state unit chief, which went to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan.

Another senior leader, Kiran Choudhary, too, did not go to Raipur reportedly due to health reasons.

"We have got sufficient numbers and our candidate will win comfortably with 31 votes," Hooda had told PTI on Wednesday.

The BJP-JJP too had shifted their MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh. They are attending a "training session" in connection with the voting process, Haryana BJP chief O P Dhankar had said.

BJP's senior leaders, including Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Dhankar, too had joined them.

While the BJP with 40 MLAs has sufficient votes to win one seat, the contest has spiced up for the second seat with entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma, an Independent candidate who is backed by the BJP-JJP combine.

He is also supported by Independents and Gopal Kanda, lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party. A candidate needs 31 votes to win the elections.

The BJP has fielded former Minister Krishan Lal Panwar while Ajay Maken is the Congress nominee.

Independent MLA Balraj Kundu, who is yet to make his stand clear on whom he will support, was on Thursday evening approached by Kartikeya's father and former Union Minister Venod Sharma, who sought support for his son.

Venod, who had also remained a minister in the erstwhile Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government, had floated his own outfit Jan Chetna Party.

Kartikeya's father-in-law Kuldeep Sharma is a senior Congress leader and a former speaker of the state Assembly.

On Thursday, Balraj Kundu told reporters that he will reveal his strategy on Friday.

Kundu took a dig at the BJP, saying its leaders used to take potshots at the Congress for lodging their legislators in a resort over fears of poaching but now they too have done the same thing.

"Why the BJP and the JJP are lodging their MLAs in a resort here. One thing is clear from this that both outfits don't have faith in their MLAs and they fear cross-voting," he said.

Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretary and Returning Officer for the polls R K Nandal said on Thursday the polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm. The votes will be counted soon thereafter.

The votes will be marked by a special pen provided by the Election Commission. Each MLA after casting his vote will hand over the pen to the officer deputed by the poll body, Nandal told reporters.

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 40 MLAs while the Congress has 31. The JJP, which is an ally of the BJP, has 10 legislators while the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party have one each and seven are independents.

Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana will fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)