Cross-voting marked the elections for the 27 Rajya Sabha seats in seven States on Saturday with the Congress facing a huge loss of face in Haryana but finding solace in having benefitted from the same trend down South in Karnataka even as it saw its lone nominee in Uttar Pradesh scraping through, with a section of his party MlAs from the State ditching him.
The BJP bagged 11 of the 27 seats up for grabs, the Congress 6, the Samajwadi Party 7, the BSP 2 and an Independent bagged one seat. The NDA’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has now swelled to 71 while the UPA’s has gone down to 64. It is the first time in the last six years that the NDA’s tally is more than the UPA’s, which could go a long way in helping the ruling dispensation push its key legislations through. Ironically, till two years ago the Congress alone had 64 seats in the Rajya Sabha.
Thirty of the 57 seats in the current round of elections were decided without contest last week.
Haryana took the cake in the ‘trend’ of the day as the votes of 14 Congress MlAs, including that of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, were found to be ‘invalid’ leading to an unexpected win for media baron Subhash Chandra at the expense of Congress-backed lawyer RK Anand.
The Congress, however, rode on the cross-voting by eight JD(S) MlAs in Karnataka to ensure the victory of all three of its candidates. Congress’ Jairam Ramesh, Oscar Fernandes and KC Ramamurthy won seats from Karnataka with rebellion-hit JD(S), whose MlAs voted for the trio, defying their party’s diktat.
In Uttar Pradesh, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, up against a socialite backed by the BJP Preeti Mahapatra, had anxious moments as four Congress MlAs voted for BJP and Samajwadi Party candidates and the BSP refrained from transferring its extra votes to the Congress candidate. Sibal, however, finally managed to make his maiden entry to the Upper House helped by a cross section of Independents and second preference votes.
Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Chaudhary Birender Singh emerged victorious on Saturday to join Cabinet colleagues Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyal who were earlier elected unopposed.
Jharkhand was another State which witnessed high drama as a JMM legislator Chamra linda was arrested ahead of the polls, even as the police looked for two Congress MlAs, who, however, managed to vote.
But that did not help JMM chief Shibu Soren’s son Basant’s case as both the BJP candidates Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar won.
The BJP made a clean sweep in Rajasthan too where all its four candidates, including Venkaiah and Om Mathur won. Despite queering the pitch, Congress could not ensure the win of industrialist Kamal Morarka whom it backed.
Results in Madhya Pradesh went along expected lines with senior journalist MJ Akbar and Anil Madhav Dave (BJP) and Congress’s Vivek Tankha romping home successfully. In Uttarakhand too, the Congress’ Pradeep Tamta won comfortably.
Besides Sibal, the others who made it to the Rajya Sabha from UP are two recent returnees to the SP-fold Amar Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Kunwar Rewati Raman Singh, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Sukhram Singh Yadav, Sanjay Seth and Surendra Nagar (all SP), Satish Chandra Mishra and Ashok Sidharth (both BSP) and Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP).
Meanwhile, social activist Sambhaji Raje Chatrapati, a direct descendant of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji, was nominated to Rajya Sabha after Pranav Pandya, head of All World Gayatri Pariwar, declined the honour last month.