New Delhi: Cross voting dominated the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27 with the Bharatiya Janata Party dealing a shock upset to the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, but managing to get all its three candidates elected in Karnataka. In Uttar Pradesh, eight out of 10 BJP candidates won.
High drama dominated the elections in Himachal Pradesh, where the Congress is in power, but saw its candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi losing to BJP’s Harsh Mahajan by a draw of votes following a tie.
Addressing reporters after the elections were declared in favour of Mahajan, Singhvi said that the saffron party needs to “introspect and think”.
“First of all, I extend heartiest congratulations to Harsh Mahajan, he has won. He deserves my congratulations. I would like to tell his party – introspect and think. When a 25-member party fields a candidate against a 43-member party, there is just one message, we will shamelessly do that which is not permitted by the law,” he said.
“If you think one person or two persons or nine persons can come up with a new ideology after last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast then I believe we are all living in a fool’s paradise. This change is very unfortunate for India and especially Himachal Pradesh, the culture of its people were not part of this culture. If this is the definition of new India then I would prefer the older definition. Even while losing we have made history. Despite so many changes of heart, they could not change one more heart and it was tied at 34. Perhaps this is the first time that a tie has happened despite such efforts by our friends.”
One Rajya Sabha seat was up for grabs from the state in which the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly has 40 Congress 40 MLAs at present, while the BJP has 25 and three are independents.
With the votes being tied at 34, it became clear that nine members of the Congress had cross voted.
“I would also like to thank the nine persons because they have taught me a lot about human nature, its fickleness or its resoluteness,” said Singhvi.
“They supped with us (in Biblical terms) because they had dinner with us and few of them had breakfast with us. So, I think we are bad judges of human character, they are obviously better judges of human character.”
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that of the nine MLAs who cross voted, three were independents and he did not want to comment on them.
“Six of them (who were elected as MLAs) sold their souls. They had defeated BJP candidates in their constituencies and come. And here they have voted against the party’s candidate. Do you think this is because of being upset? This was not in Himachal Pradesh’s culture. There have been disagreements but they have been elected, they have changed their vote and sold their souls. But people of Himachal Pradesh know that we have elected a Congress government for five years,” he said to reporters.
With the defeat, the party is possibly staring at an impending no confidence motion in the house, while the BJP has already sought Sukhu’s resignation.
“It was a great victory. We were thinking whether we should fight at all because we were only 25. But our party took a decision that despite wins and losses we must fight,” said former chief minister and leader of opposition BJP Jairam Thakur.
“We are happy that we reached from 25 to 34 and then won by one vote. I congratulate our candidate Harsh Mahajan for winning. I am also grateful to all MLAs who listened to the voice of their conscience, whether it was from the BJP or Congress or independents, who voted for Mahajan. I want to say that following this result, Congress’ chief minister should resign as he has no moral right to continue.”
Karnataka
While cross voting went against the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, it benefited from it in Karnataka where the party is also in power.
Four seats were up for election in the state, with five candidates in the fray after JD(S) named D. Kupendra Reddy on the last day of filing nominations. Earlier the Congress named three candidates including Ajay Maken, G.C. Chandrashekhar and Syed Nasir Hussain while the BJP had named Narayansa Bhandage as its candidate.
After the results which saw all three Congress candidates winning along with BJP’s Bhandage, Congress’ Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said that it was a “decisive victory.”
“I laud the efforts, commitment to ideology, principles and democracy of the Congress legislators and all other supporting legislators who made this victory possible. This is a decisive victory for democracy, India and the self-respect of Kannadigas and a decisive defeat of those who want to corrupt the legislative process by sale and purchase of legislators,” he said to reporters.
In the elections, BJP MLA S.T. Somashekar voted for Maken, while another BJP MLA A. Shivaram Hebbar abstained.
Following the results, BJP’s chief whip and former deputy chief minister R. Ashok said to reporters that legal action may be initiated against Somashekhar, reported Deccan Herald.
“I consulted with advocate Vivek Reddy who is our state legal cell president and a high court lawyer. We will ask the Speaker to initiate action against him (Somashekar) and explore the possibilities to take steps in accordance with the law,” he said.
He also said that Hebbar had “double-crossed” the party.
“Hebbar had been telling me that he would not betray the party, but I don’t know why he did not turn up to vote. He double-crossed us today, which he should not have done. We will initiate action against him,” he said.
The Congress has 135 MLAs while the BJP has 66 and the JD(S) 19 MLAs in the assembly and each candidate needed 45 votes to win.
Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won eight of the 10 seats that were up for elections while the Samajwadi Party won two.
While both parties were set to get all their candidates (seven from the BJP and three from the SP) elected, the BJP threw a spanner into the works by naming an eighth candidate-on the last day of filing nominations-opening the doors for cross voting.
The BJP candidates include R.P.N. Singh, Navin Jain, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Tejveer Singh, Sudhanshu Trivedi and industrialist Sanjay Seth who was named on the last day of filing nominations.
The Samajwadi Party candidates included Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman and Alok Ranjan who lost on Tuesday.
There was cross voting from SP MLAs with the day beginning with party’s chief whip Manoj Kumar Panday resigning from his post.
“If one is in politics, one has to bear all kinds of blame. I have been nominated for the people, and I will think only about my people,” he said to reporters.
Meanwhile party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that action will be taken against those who vote against party lines.
“Not everybody has the guts to stand against the government. Pressure is put on everybody, is there anyone who doesn’t know that BJP would go to any extent to win? BJP was dishonest during Chandigarh (mayor) elections also. As far as UP is concerned, BJP did everything to get votes and those who have left, may not have had the courage to stand against the BJP. Action will be taken because our party wants such people to be kept away from us,” he said to reporters.
Ranjan said to Press Trust of India that he had got 19 votes while the other two SP candidates-Bachchan and Suman got 41 and 40 votes respectively.
37 votes were needed by each candidate to win from the state.
After the results were announced all eight BJP Rajya Sabha MPs were congratulated by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, state BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak for registering a “landslide victory.”
Fifty-six seats across 15 states were to be filled in the Rajya Sabha elections.
Of these, the BJP won 20 seats unopposed on February 20, followed by six by the Congress, four from the TMC, three from the YSRCP, two from RJD and BJD and one each from NCP, Shiv Sena, BRS and JD(U).