One of the big stories of this election was Congress candidate Ajay Maken’s loss in Haryana to Kartikeya Sharma, an independent backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress was confident it would win this seat, as was the party’s Haryana chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Out of 90 legislators, 89 cast their votes; of this, one vote was disqualified.
Of the 88 seats, the BJP’s Krishan Panwar received 36 of these; the Congress Ajay Maken, 29, and Sharma, the independent, 23. Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi is believed to have cross-voted for Sharma.
With 88 votes cast, a candidate needed 29.34 votes to win. Panwar won in the first round, and the excess seats he had (36-29.34), 6.66 were transferred to Sharma who was the second choice. His tally increased to 29.66 votes while Ajay Maken remained at 29.
The BJP has 40 members in the 90-member House, the Congress, 31, the BJP’s ally, the Jannayak Janata Party 10. Of the remaining nine seats, there are seven Independents, while the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party have one MLA each.