In Karnataka, five nominees, including three from Congress and one each from the BJP and Janatal Dal (Secular) are in the fray. It is by allowing individual franchise that problems arise in cross-voting and uncontrollable desertions by MLAs as the anti-defection law doesn’t apply to Rajya Sabha polls.
Advertisement
Leader of opposition and INLD leader Abhay Chautala accused Congress legislators of getting their votes rejected during the election on Saturday.
It’s candidates Beni Prasad Verma, Reoti Raman Singh, Amar Singh, Sanjay Seth, Vishwambhar Prasad Nishad, Suresh Nagar and Sukhram Singh Yadav were declared victorious in preferential votes.
“In Haryana the rejection of 14 Congress votes is a surprise, we doubt it is an act of someone from the state government”, Singh told ANI.
The numbers in the Rajya Sabha have been the Congress’s last remaining stronghold.
He defeated independent candidate, Delhi-based lawyer R.K. Anand, who was supported by the INLD and the Congress. The peculiar goings-on in Haryana showed how far MLAs could go to defy their parties.
Quoting Congress sources, PTI reported that the party was shocked by the behaviour of the 14 MLAs who apparently got their votes invalid by marking the ballot with a wrong pen and would go into the entire issue and fix responsibility. They cast votes with the same pen which was kept inside. The just concluded assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry may not affect the present polling as voting from those states will be held after a couple of years.
Jharkhand was another State which witnessed high drama as a JMM Legislator Chamra Linda was arrested ahead of the polls, even as the police looked for two Congress MLAs, who, however, managed to vote.
Asked whether the party suspected internal sabotage in the elections including by former chief minister BS Hooda, he replied in negative.
All the four BJP candidates, including Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and senior BJP leader Om Prakash Mathur, won the elections for the four Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan. “During 2014 Haryana Assembly Elections, I said that I know the secret to win a lost battle and in 2016 Rajya Sabha polls I proved myself”.
Although, BSP has supported Congress nominees in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh, the party is still silent about its 12 votes which could be crucial for Congress nominee Kapil Sibal, who is short of the required 34 votes.
Advertisement
Chandra said he got a vote value of 2950 votes after Singh’s second preference votes were also transferred in his favour. The Samajwadi Party now has 19 members, with a gain of four seats, while JD-U and RJD have a combined strength of 12.
