Rajya Sabha polls: BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia, Congress’ Karamvir Boudh win two remaining seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress won one seat each in the Haryana Rajya Sabha election, even as the result was declared late at night following a delay in counting over complaints of ‘violation of vote secrecy’, as both the BJP and the Congress filed separate complaints.

The BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia and the Congress party’s Karamvir Boudh secured 28 votes each and were declared winners by the returning officer.

In the 90-member Haryana assembly, 88 MLAs cast their votes. The two MLAs of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) abstained from voting, dropping the valid vote total to 88 in the House.

However, the Election Commission invalidated the vote of Congress MLA Paramvir Singh on the complaint of the BJP over the violation of vote secrecy.

Following this, of the 87 votes, five were declared invalid by the returning officer during the counting. All these were from the Congress party. The BJP-backed independent candidate Satish Nandal got 26 votes.

Congress complains to EC

Earlier, a Congress delegation went to the Election Commission in Delhi over the matter and submitted a memorandum, before which Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had written a letter to the ECI alleging an attempt to interfere with the integrity of the election.

In the letter, Mr. Kharge said, “There is a clear attempt to interfere with the integrity of the election, and it must be stopped and redressed by the ECI immediately. Furthermore, no disqualification of our legitimate voters’ votes cast can be allowed in what is clearly a transparent attempt to taint/derail the process.”

For Haryana’s two vacant Rajya Sabha seats, three candidates were in the fray. The Congress party had fielded Karmavir Singh Boudh, while the BJP nominated Sanjay Bhatia. The third candidate was Satish Nandal, an Independent supported by the BJP.

The ruling BJP has 48 MLAs, Congress has 37, the Indian National Lok Dal has two MLAs, and three legislators are Independents in the 90-member Haryana assembly.