Chandigarh, Jun 8 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday said they have enough numbers to ensure the victory of party leader Ajay Maken in the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana.

"We have got sufficient numbers and our candidate will win comfortably," Hooda told PTI over the phone as the contest for the Rajya Sabha spiced up following the filing of nomination as an Independent candidate by media baron Kartikeya Sharma.

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Sharma is backed by the ruling BJP-JJP alliance and most Independents.

The elections to two Rajya Sabha seats from the state are scheduled for June 10. The ruling BJP-JJP alliance with its 40 MLAs is set to win one seat.

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The Congress has 31 members in the state Assembly, just enough votes to win the other seat.

However, the Congress shifted its MLAs to a hotel in Raipur fearing poaching of its legislators. The BJP too has shifted its MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh.

Hooda, who is Leader of Opposition in Haryana, said, "The Congress candidate will get 31 votes in the polls."

Kartikeya Sharma is son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma, who has also been a Union Minister in the previous UPA government.

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.

The Rajya Sabha polling is being linked to the prestige of Hooda as it will be his first challenge after the party appointed his loyalist Udai Bhan as the state unit chief after replacing Kumari Selja.

While BJP candidate and former Haryana minister Krishan Lal Panwar is all set to be elected to the Rajya Sabha, for the second seat the saffron outfit and it's ally Jannayak Janta Party is backing Kartikeya.

The BJP has lodged its MLAs in a luxury hotel in Mullanpur, Punjab, on the outskirts of Chandigarh on Wednesday.

The JJP MLAs and most Independent MLAs have also joined them in the hotel for what state BJP has described is a "training session".

"We have called a training session on June 9, a day before voting. How to cast vote and what precautions are to be taken will be given," Haryana BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar told reporters.

Dhankar said while 31 votes will be needed for the victory of BJP candidate Panwar for the first seat, the party extended support to Kartikeya with nine surplus votes it has in the 90-member State Assembly.

Dhankar said in the Rajya Sabha polls in 2016, some technical issues had cropped up during voting and during the training session they want to make the voting process clear to the legislators, especially the first-timers.

Notably, The Congress party's 12 votes were rejected because they registered their votes with another pen other than the one provided by the returning officer to record their votes.

Independent MLA Nayanpal Rawat said the BJP, JJP and Independent MLAs will sit together during the training session.

On the Congress taking their MLAs to a resort in Raipur, Rawat said, "It shows their lack of trust in their legislators."

Independent MLA Balraj Kundu, who has been vocal against the Manohar Lal Khattar government, and INLD's lone MLA Abhay Singh Chautala are yet to make it clear whom they will support.

On Wednesday, Kundu countered Nayanpal Rawat's claim of supporting Kartikeya, and in a tweet said he will cast his vote as per his conscience and keeping in view the sentiments of the people.

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)