A blame game among the political parties has started in Haryana a day after votes of 14 legislators were cancelled leading to the victory of media baron Subash Chandra, a BJP-backed independent candidate in Rajya Sabha polls.
INlD has accused Congress of hobnobbing with the BJP and has termed it as the B team of Manohar lal Khattar Government while the Congress has demanded a thorough inquiry by the Election Commission into the issue.
Following rejection as “invalid” of some votes polled in the Rajya Sabha elections for two seats in Haryana on Saturday, independent candidate lawyer RK Anand, backed by INlD and Congress, lost the poll to Subhash Chandra, also an independent who was supported by the ruling BJP.
Both Congress and INlD have pointed fingers at each other after 14 votes, which according to BJP and leader of Opposition and INlD’s senior leader Abhay Chautala were of the Congress, were found to be invalid.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday demanded a thorough inquiry by the Election Commission, including a forensic examination of the pens with which the votes were cast.
While talking to the mediapersons, Hooda said, “Never before I have heard or even imagined that conspiracy of this level could be hatched. I can say with firm belief that a conspiracy was hatched to enable victory of BJP-backed candidate (Subhash Chandra).”
Hooda said, “In a democratic set-up, if such conspiracies are allowed to succeed, then our democracy will be in danger.”
He added, “I have demanded that the matter needs to be probed. RK Anand should file an election petition.”
Hooda also demanded re-election and accused ruling BJP and opposition INlD of hatching a conspiracy to benefit BJP backed candidate.
“The party high command is keeping an eye on the situation and action will be taken against the MlAs if found guilty and backstabbing the party,” said Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar following the reports that Hooda and his loyalists did not want to vote for Anand in the first place since he was a candidate backed by rival INlD.
On the other hand, INlD leader Abhay Chautala has blamed both BJP and Congress for the defeat of RK Anand. He said, “The BJP already knew that this would happen during the polling. Bhupinder Singh Hooda wanted to support Subhash Chandra, hence a conspiracy was hatched.”
We will register a complaint with the Election Commission to probe into the issue, Chautala added.
Chandra had got only 15 votes and Anand had 21 votes as first preference in the final count, but BJP MlAs had listed the media baron as their second preference which helped him to scrape through. Union Minister and BJP leader Birender Singh comfortably won the other Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana, garnering 40 votes.
At present, BJP has 47 MlAs in the Assembly, INlD 19, Congress 17 (with Kuldeep Bishnoi's two-member HJC merging with the party recently) and BSP and SAD 1 each while 5 are independents.