The political acumen and management of Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has worked. The party has not only managed to win three seats of Rajya Sabha but also poached a vote from BJP. The fourth seat has gone to BJP as was expected. The independent candidate Subhash Chandra who was backed by BJP did not get as many votes as he should have.
The winning candidates in Rajasthan had to get 41 votes each and as per results announced by the Election Commission, Congress candidates Mukul Vasnik got 42, Randeep Singh Surjewala got 43 and Pramod Tiwari got 41 votes while BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari got 43 votes and independent Subhash Chandra got 30 votes. Chandra left Jaipur even before the counting of votes began.
One BJP MLA Shobha Rani Kushwaha did cross-voting in the favor of Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari. Although an application was moved by Chandra to reject the vote of Kushwaha claiming that his polling agent Rajendra Rathore had taken Kushwaha’s ballot paper in his hand, while as per rules, he could only see it but this application was rejected by the Election Commission.
"As an election agent, I have exercised my rights. This is our internal matter and I’ll put this on the party platform," said Rathore to the media on the cross-voting of Kushwaha.
It is pertinent to mention here that Shobha Rani Kushwaha’s husband BL Kushwaha is in jail in a criminal case.
This election was crucial for CM Gehlot as the party high-command, expressing confidence in him, had fielded three of its central leaders from Rajasthan. Gehlot had managed this election almost single-handedly. He worked tirelessly for the last 10 days to arrange the required number and the result was such that none of the Congress and supporting MLAs had crossed their votes, though six of them had shown their annoyance openly and Chandra had claimed that 8 Congress MLAs would cross their votes in his favour.
Gehlot congratulated the winning candidates of the party and said, "It was clear that Congress had the required majority for all three seats but BJP tried horse-trading by fielding an independent. The solidarity of our MLAs has given a befitting reply."
