The North News
Chandigarh, March 16
Polling was underway for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana on Monday, with the Congress MLAs who were moved to Himachal Pradesh ahead of the polling returning to the city and exercising their vote besides several other prominent MLAs.
BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia, Karamvir Singh Boudh of the Congress and Independent candidate Satish Nandal are in the fray for the two seats. The BJP is backing Nandal, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly polls as its nominee.
The MLAs of the Congress, who had been moved to Himachal ahead of the polling, returned to Chandigarh shortly after the polling commenced at 9 am.
Gujarat deputy chief minister Harsh Sanghavi, who is an observer for the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, told reporters that he was sad to see the way the Congress moved their MLAs to Himachal and kept a close eye on their movements.
“Seeing the condition of Congress MLAs, as I am coming to know through the media reports, I will say that as a public representative I feel very sad. I am going through media reports, the way Congress MLAs were restricted in closed rooms shows mistrust towards their own MLAs,” Sanghavi said.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Minister Shyam Singh Rana, other BJP MLAs, including Krishna Gahlawat and Mool Chand Sharma, Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chander Mohan, Independent MLA Savitri Jindal were among those who cast their votes.
Haryana Minister Anil Vij, who had recently fractured both his legs after a fall, arrived on a wheelchair to cast his vote.
Vij and some other ministers, including Vipul Goel, expressed confidence that the BJP will win besides the Independent candidate backed by it.
On the Congress sending its MLAs to Himachal before polling, Vij said, “Congress does not trust its MLAs which is why they are taking them from here and there.”
Ahead of the polling, the Congress had moved its MLAs to Kasauli on Friday. They were accompanied by State Congress chief Rao Narender Singh, party general secretary in-charge of Haryana, B K Hariprasad and some party MPs from the state, including Deepender Singh Hooda.
They were shifted to Kasauli in Solan district on Sunday and returned to Chandigarh on Monday morning.
The Congress has 37 MLAs in the Haryana Assembly, but few of them did not go to Himachal Pradesh owing to family commitments or health reasons.
Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also stayed back.
Notably, Congress with 37 members has the required strength to help its candidate win a seat. The equation, however, could change in case of cross-voting. AICC secretary and state affairs co-incharge Prafulla Gudadhe told reporters here that the Congress candidate will win.
Replying to a question, Prafulla said Nandal, who is a BJP leader, entered the contest as an Independent and is backed by the saffron party despite not having the required numbers.
“What does all of this show. Isn’t it the BJP which has indirectly put up its candidate even though Nandal may not be their official candidate. The BJP plays such kind of politics, like ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) which we saw in Haryana Assembly polls,” he said.
Nandal’s candidature was proposed by three independents — Savitri Jindal, Rajesh Joon and Devender Kadyan — and seven BJP MLAs. Independent candidate Nandal, while talking to reporters, said he was confident of his win.
When pointed out that he did not have the required number on his side, Nandal said after he entered the fray he had approached all legislators and appealed to them to vote for him.
From Kasauli in HP, the 31 Congress MLAs who had gone to Himachal reached Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s Chandigarh residence from where they proceeded to cast their vote for the polls.
Hooda and Chander Mohan, who were among the legislators who did not go to Himachal, along with other party legislators reached the Vidhan Sabha premises where voting was being held in a room designated for polling.
Before heading for voting from Hooda’s residence, senior Congress member Raghuvir Singh Kadian told reporters, “We will get 38 votes” while another party MLA Induraj Narwal claimed the Congress candidate will get 39 votes, though both the leaders did not explain from where the extra votes will come.
Congress leaders Ashok Arora and Aftab Ahmed said the Congress candidate will win.
The ruling BJP has 48 MLAs, the INLD has two and three legislators are Independents in the 90-member Haryana assembly.
Each of the two candidates requires 31 votes to make it to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana.
The two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana fell vacant as BJP members Kiran Choudhry and Ram Chander Jangra are set to complete their terms on April 9.
Nandal would need 17 second preference votes of the BJP, three votes of the Independent MLAs, two votes of the Indian National Lok Dal and at least eight votes of the Congress legislators for victory.
Nandal had lost to Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda from the Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi constituency in Rohtak district in the 2019 assembly polls. Before joining the BJP, he was also with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). BJP’s Bhatia is a former Lok Sabha MP from Karnal.
Congress’ Boudh, a retired Haryana government employee, has been a Dalit activist who has raised issues pertaining to the community on various platforms.
Currently, the coordinator of the National Scheduled Castes department of the Congress, Boudh is learnt to be the choice of party leader Rahul Gandhi.
In 2016 and 2022, the BJP backed Independents won the election despite the Congress backed and the Congress candidate, respectively, having the required numbers on its side.
In 2022, Congress candidate Ajay Maken lost to BJP-JJP-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma despite the party having the required strength of 31 then to win the seat. The then Congress party legislator Kuldeep Bishnoi (now with the BJP) cross-voted while another vote was declared invalid.
In 2016, the votes of 14 Congress MLAs were declared invalid leading to the loss of a party-backed Independent candidate who was otherwise expected to win.
