Why Kartikeya Sharma’s RS nomination in Haryana may queer the pitch for Congress

Kartikeya Sharma’s last-minute nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections in Haryana has revived memories of 2016 when 12 Congress MLAs were disqualified on the ground that they used the wrong type of ink

NEW DELHI: Former Congress leader Venod Sharma’s son Kartikeya Sharma’s last-minute nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana raises the possibility of significant cross-voting in the election, people aware of the matter said.

Kartikeya Sharma, who filed his nomination for a Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana, is founder of iTV Network, the founder of Pro Wrestling League and Indian Arena Polo League, according to his company website

Kartikeya Sharma, 41, is the managing director of ITV Network which runs news channels such as NewsX. He is also the son of former Congressman Venod Sharma, who was expelled from the party for anti-party activities in 2014 and went on to float the Haryana Jan Chetna Party. His son, Manu Sharma, was jailed for killing model Jessica Lal at a south Delhi bar in 1999 and was sentenced to life imprisonment before a sentence review board released him in June 2020. 

“There is expected to be significant cross-voting in this election,” said a former Congress leader in the state, citing Kartikeya Sharma and his family’s Congress connections that could influence the voting and spoil the chances of the official nominee, Ajay Maken.

To win a Rajya Sabha seat in the state, a candidate needs to get at least 30 votes and the Congress has 31. However, no one is counting on Kuldeep Bishnoi who has been sulking for some time, especially with Bhupinder Hooda being given full control of the party ahead of polls in 2024.

But it’s not just Bishnoi, Venod Sharma is expected to influence many other legislators in the state from his former party.

It is not clear if Kartikeya Sharma’s association with veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s son will help. Azad is a top-ranking leader of the Congress’s G-23 and was also denied a Rajya Sabha nomination by the party. The G-23 is a grouping of 23 leaders who wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2020, seeking changes in the way the party was run.

Ghulam Nabi Azad used to be the general secretary in charge of Haryana till the reshuffle in September 2020.

Also, Kartikeya’s father-in-law, Kuldeep Sharma was a Congress MLA in the state till 2019 when he was denied a ticket.

To be sure, Haryana has been a complicated fight and the fresh possibility of cross-voting after Kartikeya Sharma’s entry refreshes memories of the 2016 Rajya Sabha elections in Haryana. At that time, a dozen Congress MLAs were disqualified because of the use of the wrong ink for voting, bringing down the number of valid votes and ensuring an easy win to another Independent at the time, media baron Subhash Chandra. This time, Subhash Chandra has moved over to Rajasthan, but the pitch seems queered in both states.

According to a BJP leader, their 10 extra votes and 10 votes of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), along with seven Independents, means that Kartikeya Sharma just needs three Congress MLAs to cross-vote. At his nomination, many JJP MLAs and an Independent lawmaker were present.

HT reached out to Kartikeya Sharma but didn’t get any response.