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Congress keeps its Rajasthan, Haryana MLAs in hotels ahead of Rajya Sabha polls
The move came after businessmen Subhash Chandra and Kartikeya Sharma filed their nominations as independent candidates from Rajasthan and Haryana respectively, with the support of BJP.
The Congress party’s legislators from Rajasthan and Haryana were on Thursday lodged in hotels in Udaipur and Raipur respectively as resort politics -- a familiar trend in recent years to prevent poaching attempts by other parties -- resumed ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha elections on June 10.
The move came after businessmen Subhash Chandra and Kartikeya Sharma filed their nominations as independent candidates from Rajasthan and Haryana respectively, with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for what could be two pitched electoral contests.
The BJP is the principal opposition party in the Rajasthan assembly, and leads the ruling alliance in Haryana.
The elections to 57 seats in the Upper House of Parliament, spread across 15 states and Union territories, will be held on June 10. Four of these seats are from Congress-ruled Rajasthan, and two are from Haryana.
The Congress has fielded three candidates in Rajasthan -- Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala, and Pramod Tiwari. The BJP has named former state minister Ghanshyam Tiwari as its candidate, apart from deciding to support Chandra’s candidature. The ruling Congress, with 108 MLAs in the assembly, is set to win two of the four seats outright, and the BJP is set to win one.
The Congress will then have 26 surplus votes, but 15 short of the required 41 to win the third seat. The BJP, which has 71 MLAs, will be left with 30 surplus votes after securing its seat. There are 13 independents in the assembly, with the Communist Party of India (CPI) having two seats, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) three, the Bharatiya Tribal Party two, and the Rashtriya Lok Dal one.
Though chief minister Ashok Gehlot said he was confident the Congress would pull through with the support of independents and friendly parties, analysts say that Chandra’s nomination has made it a close race to the finish line.
For the two seats in Haryana, the Congress has fielded one candidate, Ajay Maken, and the BJP has fielded Kishan Lal Panwar, apart from extending support to Kartikeya Sharma. The number needed to win an Upper House seat is 30 in the 90-member assembly, and though the Congress has 31 members, the BJP and its allies in government have 57 members. This means the ruling alliance will have 27 excess votes after it secures its seat, and just two cross-votes from the Congress could enable Sharma to get elected.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday addressed Congress MLAs and others who support the party, and stressed that it will win three seats. The legislators then left in a bus from the CM’s residence in Jaipur to Udaipur’s Taj Aravali hotel, where the party had held its Chintan Shivir last month. The bus was escorted by a police team.
“Other MLAs will be reaching Udaipur through flight or bus by Thursday night or Friday morning,” said a party leader aware of the matter who asked not to be named.
Rajasthan’s former chief minister and BJP vice-president Vasundhara Raje said it was “shocking to see “power being misused” before the Rajya Sabha elections. “A police vehicle has been placed behind every MLA and they are being chased. This is a complete abuse of power, which has never happened before,” she alleged.
Raje added: “In spite of this, our BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari and Subhash Chandra will win... The MLAs will definitely make both our candidates victorious by rising above the party line.”
There was no clarity about whom two independent MLAs — Baljeet Yadav and Ramila Khardiya — and two Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) legislators, who have been supporting the Congress-led Rajasthan government, would side with.
Meanwhile, 27 of the Congress MLAs from Haryana reached Raipur in private plane on Thursday evening, and will be staying at the Mayfair hotel on the outskirts of the city. The four who were yet to join them included forer CM Bhoopinder Singh Hooda, former minister Kiran Choudhry, Kuldeep Bishnoi, and Charanjiv Rao.
“MLAs and office-bearers of Haryana Congress are shifted to Mayfair Lake Resort, which is in Nava Raipur, for the time being but later some of them could be shifted to other places also,” said a functionary of the Chhattisgarh government who asked not to be named.
Chhattisgarh minister Ravindra Chaubey said the party was taking all precautions.
“We have nothing to worry in the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana. But there are many instances where we have got the mandate of people but the BJP formed the government. Therefore to avoid such incident, the party has sent Haryana MLAs to Chhattisgarh… I think there is nothing wrong in it,” said Chaubey.
Political analyst Manish Godha said putting up MLAs and MPs in resorts has become new political tradition. “Pressure politics and horse-trading in elections such as Rajya Sabha is becoming a common phenomenon, and parties are bound to take such precautionary measures to save their seats and manage political equations,” Godha added.
Similar resort politics was seen by several parties in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan in recent years around Lok Sabha elections to ensure the party flock stays together.
(With inputs from Hitender Rao)
