In Rajasthan, Cong bags 3, BJP 1; In K’taka, BJP wins 3, Cong 1; setback for Subhash Chandra
The Congress and the BJP shared the honours in Rajasthan and Karnataka winning 3 and 1 Rajya Sabha seats each respectively on Friday. But counting of votes did not start till late at night in Maharashtra and Haryana as the Election Commission was dealing with complaints of electoral malpractices.
In Maharashtra, both the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Opposition BJP knocked on the doors of the ECI complaining against electoral malpractices allegedly indulged in by each other.
In Haryana also, the counting of votes for the two Rajya Sabha seats was put on hold after the BJP and the Independent candidate backed by it urged the Election Commission to cancel the votes of two Congress MLAs.
BJP nominee Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma shot off a missive to the EC, alleging Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhary and BB Batra showed their ballot papers to unauthorised persons after marking them and that the episodes were “duly captured” by the camera installed for the purpose of election.
However, Congress candidate from Haryana Ajay Maken wrote to the Election Commission of India, stating that the demand raised by BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma be quashed and the results declared at the earliest.
The ruling Congress won three of the four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan, overcoming the challenge posed by BJP-backed independent candidate Subhash Chandra. The BJP got the fourth seat. Its candidate and former minister Ghanshyam Tiwari said he had also won, polling 43 votes.
Congress candidates Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari were elected to the Rajya Sabha, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced. The CM also thanked BJP MLA Shobharani Kushwah for cross-voting in favour of Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari.
The BJP has suspended Kushwah from the party’s primary membership. “When everybody knows that 126 MLAs are with us, why did they field an independent candidate? They wanted to attempt horse-trading but that did not happen,” Gehlot told reporters at the Assembly building.
Newly elected Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala said it was a victory of truth. “The Congress got a total of 127 votes. One vote was rejected because of a minor thing,” he added.
Before them, BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari and other leaders of the party announced his victory in one seat. “I am thankful to the State and the central leadership for making me the candidate. I got 43 votes,” Tiwari said.
All 200 Rajasthan MLAs had cast their votes for the Rajya Sabha elections by Friday afternoon. In the House, Congress has 108 MLAs, BJP 71, Independents 13, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) three, and the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) two each.
In Karnataka, the ruling BJP won the three Rajya Sabha seats it had contested, while the Congress managed to win only one of the two seats to which it had fielded its candidates. The Janata Dal-Secular, which had fielded one candidate despite not having enough votes, failed to win any, as the Congress did not accept its request for support in the name of secularism.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh, and outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya of the BJP, and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh of the Congress were declared victorious by the poll officials after counting of votes.
There was suspense over the outcome of the contest for the fourth seat, which witnessed a tight contest among all the three political parties, as they had fielded candidates despite none of them having adequate number of votes to win it, and thereby forcing an election.
A total of six candidates were in the fray for the Rajya Sabha elections to the four seats from the State, necessitating a contest for the fourth one.
With 46 votes each, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman got elected for her third Rajya Sabha term from the state, and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh the fourth time.
In Maharashtra, though all the eligible MLAs cast their votes in the RS polls for six votes by 1.30 pm, the counting of votes could not begin shortly thereafter as it normally happens in an election to the Upper House of Parliament owing to complaints of violations of election rules made by both the BJP and MVA.
In the normal course, the RS poll results would have been declared by 5 pm. But, with the matter being adjudicated by the ECI, available indications suggested that the election authorities might declare the RS poll results in Maharashtra late at the night or early on Saturday.
The Opposition BJP —which has made it a prestige issue to win the third seats by any means despite the fact that it has MLAs’ strength to win only win two seats out of the six seats for which the polling was held on Friday — was aggressive and more quick in lodging complaints with the election authorities.
Considering the strengths of major contending parties in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly that is an electoral college for the polls, the ruling MVA — comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress — can collectively win four out of six RS seats, while the BJP can win two seats.
Though it can win only two seats, the BJP has gone ahead and fielded Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, former State Minister Anil Bonde and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik as its candidates, while the Shiv Sena has nominated Sanjay Raut and Sanjay Pawar as its candidates. The NCP has put up former union minister Praful Patel as its candidate, while the Congress has fielded Imran Pratapgarhi, a Uttar Pradesh-based Urdu poet, as its candidate.
The actual contest is for the sixth seat — between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.
Earlier during the polling, the BJP claimed that Yashomati Thakur (Congress), Jitendra Awhad (NCP) and Suhas Kande (Shiv Sena) had violated the rule of showing ballot paper to the authorised agent. “Though each voter has to display his vote to the authorized agent from a distance, Thakur and Awhad handed their ballot papers to their respective agents, while Kande displayed his ballot paper to the agents of two different parties,” Parag Alavani, BJP MLA and polling agent, claimed.
Senior Congress leader and PWD Minister Ashok Chavan said that his party’s polling agent Amar Rajurkar had objected to the vote cast by Sudhir Mungantiwar (BJP) as the latter had handed his ballot paper to Ashish Shelar, the BJP polling agent.
“About 10 to 12 objections that were raised, have been ruled out by the election authorities. All objections were rejected by the local election officials,Industries minister and senior Shiv Sena Subhash Desai said.
Notwithstanding the claim by Deshmukh, the objections raised by both the BJP and MVA constituents remained unresolved. As a consequence, the BJP and the Congress (which is representing the other constituents — Shiv Sena and NCP — approached the ECI for resolution. On its part, the BJP demanded that the election be declared as null and void in view of the alleged violations by the MVA and fresh elections to six RS seats be held.