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Rajya Sabha elections: Haryana BJP, Cong put ball in EC’s court
Counting on hold as ruling BJP complains of poll code violation to EC and wants the votes of two Congress MLAs cancelled, while Oppn nominee Ajay Maken says complaint false and frivolous
Soon after voting for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana ended in the 90-member Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh on Friday evening, the BJP sought cancellation of the votes of two Congress members, while the opposition nominee, Ajay Maken, wrote to the Election Commission, alleging the ruling party’s objection of code violation was false and frivolous. The counting of the ballots, scheduled to start at 5pm, is on hold for the time-being.
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Seeking cancellation of the votes of Kiran Choudhary and BB Batra, the BJP complained to the Election Commission that the two Congress legislators violated the conduct of election rules. A BJP delegation, comprising Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Jitendra Singh, will meet the EC in New Delhi on Friday evening. They complained that the two Congress MLAs showed their ballot papers to unauthorised persons after marking them.
Maken sent a separate representation to the Election Commission, stating that the allegations of violation of conduct of election rules by the BJP were “false and frivolous”. Maken said that the returning officer had seen the video footage and there was no breach of secrecy or privacy on part of the two Congress MLAs. He said the BJP’s complaint is liable to be rejected and the EC should declare the poll result.
What triggered the controversy
Earlier, Congress MLA Kiran Choudhary said that JJP leader Digvijay Chautala, who is the authorised agent of Kartikeya Sharma, tried to look into her ballot paper when she was showing it to the Congress authorised agent, Vivek Bansal. “Digvijay demanded that my vote be declared invalid. However, it was not and I was able to insert the ballot in the ballot box,” she said.
According to rules, the open ballot voting for Rajya Sabha mandates that political parties can appoint an authorised agent to verify who its members have voted for. The agent is seated inside the polling station in seats provided by the returning officer. After they mark the vote and before inserting it in the ballot box, the MLAs of political parties are required to show the marked ballot to the agent of their party. Independent MLAs are not required to show their marked ballot to anyone.
89 MLAs cast vote, one abstains
Eighty-nine legislators exercised their franchise, while Independent MLA Balraj Kundu abstained from voting that began at 9am and ended at 4pm to elect two members from the state.
BJP candidate Krishan Lal Panwar, Congress nominee Ajay Maken and BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma are in the fray for the two Upper House seats from Haryana. While Panwar will easily sail through, the BJP-JJP combine is trying to upset the prospects of Congress candidate Maken.
The Congress, which herded its 28 MLAs to a lake resort in Chhattisgarh a week back to insulate them from being approached by Kartikeya Sharma, was also in touch with a couple of independents.
Kundu’s decision to abstain could help the Congress candidate.
The deciding factor
Thirty-one votes are required to win the first of the two seats. Since the BJP has 40 MLAs, its candidate Panwar will win hands down.
Congress candidate Maken should win if all 31 party MLAs vote for him.
The BJP-JJP coalition has 19 second preference votes and expects at least six Independents to vote for Kartikeya Sharma. Lone INLD MLA Abhay Chautala and HLP MLA Gopal Kanda have also extended support to Sharma. However, he cannot win unless a few Congress MLAs switch sides or their votes are declared invalid.
The two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring.
Kartikeya Sharma is the son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, who had been a minister in the erstwhile Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government. Venod Sharma had later floated his own outfit, the Jan Chetna Party.
