Dr Chandra defeated another independent candidate, Delhi-based lawyer RK Anand, who was supported by the INLD and the Congress. While Dr Chandra got 29 votes, Anand managed only 15.
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Former Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda lashed out at the Election Commission officials who conducted the polls for Rajya Sabha in legislative assembly on Saturday.
Buoyed by victory of its candidates in Rajya Sabha biennial polls despite Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “hurdles”, the Congress Party on Sunday said its success proves that “democracy has won”. “Money power played a key role in the Rajya Sabha poll”.
BJP was expecting the support of two legislators of National Unionist Zamindara Party and four independent legislators and secure a combined tally of 166 votes for its four candidates but figure stood at 164. Hariprasad alleged that there was deliberate fraud in the election by switching the pen meant for marking the votes so as to make the Congress votes invalid.
BJP’s first candidate, Union Minister Birender Singh, won the other seat in the state. Votes marked by any other colour of ink are declared invalid. Besides, election is also taking place for four each RS seats from Karnataka and Rajasthan, three from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Haryana and Jharkhand and one from Uttarakhand.
After his party-backed independent candidate Mr. Anand faced defeat, leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly and INLD leader Mr. Chautala had blamed the Congress and claimed, “Congress party’s 14 votes were rejected because they registered their votes with another pen other than the one provided by the Returning Officer to record their votes in the voting compartment”.
Surjewala’s vote was cancelled following an objection raised by BJP chief whip Gian Chand Gupta.
The BJP suffered a setback in Madhya Pradesh when its third candidate and the lone Congress candidate Vivek Tankha polled the highest votes – 62 – five more than 57 MLAs it has.
In a major boost to the Congress, four of its senior leaders, including P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, were elected to the Rajya Sabha on Saturday, party sources said.
The BJP bagged 11 of the 27 seats up for grabs, the Congress 6, the Samajwadi Party 7, the BSP 2 and an Independent bagged one seat.
Two legislators – Chamra Linda of the JMM and Devendra Singh of Congress – did not turn up for voting.
Although all 17 votes of the Congress were to go to Mr Anand, at the end only three – that of Kuldeep Bishnoi, his wife Renuka and Kiran Chaudhary went to him, leading to his loss.
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She had also supported Chief Minister Harish Rawat when a floor test was contested to see if he had the majority to continue as the chief minister after a few of his MLAs defected.
