In what could be termed as a major setback for the Congress in the run for the RS polls in the state, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had informed the Congress party that there was no provision for a postal ballot in the Rajya Sabha polls.
The Congress has appealed against the decision of the ECI at the High Court. Since the lawyer of the ECI was not in present in court, the HC has fixed June 9 as next date of hearing.
The Congress party had on Monday filed a petition through their counsel Shashank Shekhar in the MP High Court demanding that 2 party MlAs, leader of opposition Satyadev Katare and Barwani MlA Ramesh Patel be allowed to vote through postal ballot. While Satyadev Katare is admitted at a hospital in Mumbai, Patel is in jail on criminal charges.
Even though the BSP has pledged support of its 4 MlAs to the Congress candidate in the biennial polls for the upper house of parliament, the Congress is 'concerned' about possible attempts at horse trading as the pledging of BSP votes, is the only way the BJP can now win the 3rd seat.
A total of 58 votes are required to win a seat in the Rajya Sabha polls.
With the support of the BSP, the Congress now has 61 votes but is still worried, mainly due to what senior party leaders described as recent attempts to dislodge Congress governments by the BJP across the country.
Congress worries are because its three members including leader of Opposition (lop) Satyadev Katare, who is seriously ill in a Mumbai hospital, MlA from Barwani Ramesh Patel, who is in jail on the charges of rape and murder and MlA from Sironj, Goverdhan Upadhyay, who is admitted in
Indore hospital after severe spine injury, were unable to cast their vote and this would reduce Congress figure to 54 making it difficult for its candidate to enter upper house.