Also, party strongman and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been asked about reports that he had left his ballot paper blank.
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The Congress-backed candidate, lawyer RK Anand, failed to win the seat because of the fiasco that the party blamed on the ruling BJP.
Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is seeking entry into Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand.
Tankha, whose party Congress has 57 votes, appears comfortably placed after BSP announced the backing of its four MLAs. But this does not seem to be a credible enough defence.
The Congress petitioned the Election Commission on Monday to cancel the election to two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, alleging a conspiracy to defeat a candidate backed by the party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won 12 out of 27 Rajya Sabha seats that went to polls today.
“Out of the 14 votes rejected, 12 were given to Independent candidate R K Anand”.
Further disclosing his wining secret, Dr Chandra said, “I personally called-up 76 out of 90 MLAs of Haryana and sought for their support”.
In the last two years, Congress has used its majority in the Rajya Sabha to delay the Constitutional (One Hundred Twenty Second Amendment) Bill, which has to be passed to implement the country’s biggest tax reform.
“Congress touched a new low by supporting a candidate who had in the past criticised Indira Gandhi and other members of the Gandhi family”.
Congress s Pradeep Tamta today defeated Independent candidate Anil Goel to win the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Uttarakhand and become the first Dalit from the hill state to make it to the Upper House of Parliament. All four finally came together and told the reporters that they were going to vote for the Congress candidate.
“Eight of our MLAs (lawmakers) face suspension for defying the party’s whip and cross voting in favour of Congress candidate (K.C. Ramamurthy) instead of voting for our official nominee B.M. Farook, who lost the contest”, JD-S spokesman Ramesh Babu said. However, he needed only 26 votes when 14 votes were declared invalid.
Meanwhile, another Congress leader Salman Khursid also alleged the BJP of using money power and administration to turn the battle on its side.
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Replying to a question about cross voting by MLAs, Mr Tiwari said he had no respect for those who have betrayed their own parties but said that action, if any, will be decided by the party leadership. Had they all voted for Anand, he would have won easily.
