Chandigarh: At least 27 of the total 31 Congress MLAs were flown to Raipur, the capital of Chhatisgarh, by the party leadership to avert possible horse-trading in the June 10 election of the two Rajya Sabha seats of Haryana.
The last date for filing nominations was May 31, while the last date for withdrawal of the nominations is June 3. The election would be held on June 10.
While it appeared to be an easy win for the BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and Congress’ Ajay Maken as far as the numbers went, the entry of Kartikeya Sharma, son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma and son-in-law of Congress leader Kuldeep Sharma into the fray as an independent has on the last day of nominations, fuelled the of possible horse-trading among Congress legislators.
It is pertinent to note here that Kartikeya is the younger brother of Manu Sharma who was jailed for the infamous Jessica Lal’s murder.
The two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana would fall vacant in August when the terms of BJP-supported independent Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam would expire.
For the record, in the House of 90 members, the BJP has 40 MLAs, its ally Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), has 10, the main opposition party Congress, 31, while there are seven independent MLAs, besides one each of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP).
The BJP candidate thus needs 31 votes while the Congress candidate needs 30 votes. Though Panwar has the numbers on his side, Maken, too, has the required votes needed to send him to the Rajya Sabha since the Congress has 31 votes.
It is pertinent to mention here that even though Congress leadership has flown 27 legislators in a chartered plane from Delhi, it remains to be seen whether or not Congress leaders Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhry, who were not among the 27 flown, would cast their votes to Maken. While Bishnoi has been sulking for being ``ignored’’ by the party high command and has stayed away from the party meetings, Choudhry has reportedly held she is ``unwell’’.
While there is a provision for a preferential vote in the RS election, sources in BJP say that the party MLAs could also back Sharma as the second preference. The JJP and a few independents have openly supported Sharma.
According to an estimate, in case the BJP decides to give him the second preference votes, Sharma would have nine BJP votes after 31 in favour of Panwar have been deducted. He will have 10 JJP votes with party supremo Ajay Chautala extending support to him and there are seven independent MLAs in Haryana. Also, there is one MLA of the Indian National Lok Dal and the Haryana Lokhit Party, who could also back Sharma, poll observers say.
Even though talks are agog among Congress legislators about Maken being an ``outsider’’, an issue, Sharma is raising, this translating into their defiance cannot be taken with certainty.
