Rajya Sabha polls: BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia, Congress’ Karamvir Boudh elected; Haryana CM congratulates

While developments emerged regarding the allegations of vote secrecy being violated, it was announced that Sanjay Bhatia from the BJP and Karamvir Singh Boudh from the Congress Party were elected to two Rajya Sabha seats in the carefully watched elections.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini congratulated both the leaders on their win at a late night press conference.

Terming the elections interesting, Mr. Saini criticized the Congress, accusing it of keeping its MLAs captive and transferring them to different places, citing the shifting of Congress legislators from Himachal Pradesh.

“This is the first time I have seen Congress not trusting its MLAs,” he claimed.

Saini said the Congress was “finished” and had “no future”.

The Prime Minister also slammed the INLD for abstaining from voting and said it was acting like the “B team” of the Congress.

He alleged that the INLD was indirectly supporting the Congress.

Responding to a question about an independent candidate, Mr. Saini said, “How can they stop someone from contesting the poll?” The counting of votes, which was supposed to be done at 5 pm after polling ended at 4 pm, started after a delay of more than five hours after the Congress and the BJP lodged their complaints regarding violation of vote secrecy.

Congress MLA and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said his party’s candidate Boudh won.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “This is our victory.”

“This is the victory of ‘Prajatantar’ and the defeat of the ‘vote choir’,” Mr. Hooda said as he along with other party leaders showed signs of victory.

Mr. Hooda said all along one seat belonged to the Congress and the BJP.

Mr Hooda, however, alleged that they were attempting “vote theft” for the third candidate. He added that the returning officer’s behavior was partisan.

Mr. Boudh thanked the party leadership and Mr. Hooda for his election.

Meanwhile, Haryana Minister Gaurav Gautam had earlier said that party candidate Sanjay Bhatia won.

Officials said five votes – four from the Congress and one from the BJP – were declared invalid.

BJP’s Bhatia, Congress’s Karamvir Singh Boudh and Independent candidate Satish Nandal contested on two seats. The BJP supported Nandal, who unsuccessfully contested as a candidate in the 2019 assembly elections. Two MLAs of the INLD abstained from the vote.

Talking to reporters, BJP’s Bhatia claimed that five Congress MLAs had cross-voted.

Before the voting ended, minister Krishan Kumar Bedi told reporters that the BJP had complained to the Election Commission about “violation of vote secrecy” by two Congress MLAs – Bharat Singh Beniwal from Ellenabad and Paramvir Singh from Tohana.

Bedi said, “Two of the Congress MPs did not multiply their votes as they should have and violated the confidentiality of their votes. We have filed a complaint with the Election Commission.”

However, Congress leader Ashok Arora said that no complaint was lodged when these legislators were voting and alleged that it was done deliberately after 4 pm.

He also said that the Congress has also filed a complaint against senior BJP leader and minister Anil Vij, accusing him of violating vote secrecy.

Haryana Congress Rao Narender Singh had earlier termed the allegation of breach of vote secrecy against his party’s MLAs as false and said his candidate would win the election.

Congress candidate Karamvir Singh Boudh has filed a complaint with the ECI against the Returning Officer for alleged partisan behaviour.

Official sources said that counting of votes started after the ECI gave its approval in this regard.

Previously, voting was held for two seats on Monday, and it was noteworthy that the Indian National Lok Dal, which has two legislators, did not participate in the voting.

Congress MPs, who moved to Himachal Pradesh before the voting, returned to the city in the morning and cast their votes.

Earlier, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had written to the Election Commission, alleging an attempt to interfere with the integrity of the Rajya Sabha election and seeking time for a party delegation to meet him.

Mr. Kharge also included in his letter a copy of the affidavit submitted by the party candidate Boudh to the ECI.

“There is a clear attempt to interfere with the integrity of the election and this needs to be stopped/corrected immediately by the ECI. Further, disqualification of our legitimate voters/votes cast cannot be allowed as a blatantly transparent attempt to tarnish/distort the process,” the letter said. It was said.

“Given the time-sensitive nature of the matter, we request immediate time for a delegation led by Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi and senior leaders of the party to discuss your well-being before the declaration of results,” he said.

While the Indian National Lok Dal, which has two members in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, abstained from the vote, party leaders Abhay Singh Chautala and Aditya Devi Lal said that they decided to take this decision considering the feelings of the people.

The BJP has 48 MLAs, the Congress has 37, the INLD has two MLAs and three legislators in the 90-member Haryana Assembly are Independents.

Congress MPs, who had moved to Himachal ahead of the polls, returned to Chandigarh soon after polling began at 9 am.

Haryana minister Anil Vij, who broke both his legs in a fall recently, came to vote in a wheelchair.

Ahead of the polls, the Congress had moved its MLAs to Kufri in Himachal on Friday.

Nandal’s candidature was proposed by three independents (Savitri Jindal, Rajesh Joon and Devender Kadyan) and seven BJP MLAs.

Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana remained vacant as BJP members Kiran Choudhry and Ram Chander Jangra completed their terms on April 9.

Mr. Nandal had lost to Congress leader Hooda from Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi constituency in Rohtak district in the 2019 assembly polls. Before joining the BJP, he was also working in the INLD.

BJP candidate Bhatia is a former Lok Sabha MP from Karnal.

Mr. Boudh of the Congress, a retired Haryana government employee, is a Dalit activist who has been raising community-related issues on various platforms.

It is learned that Boudh, currently the coordinator of the Congress National Scheduled Castes Department, is party leader Rahul Gandhi’s choice.