NEW DELHI: As Opposition candidate B K Hariprasad failed to garner the required numbers for the post of deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, the AAP today accused Congress of doing politics with a "small heart".
Hariprasad lost the election to NDA's Harivansh, who received 125 votes as against the opposition candidate's 105 votes.
The ruling AAP, which abstained from voting, blamed the Congress for reportedly not seeking their support for the elections.
AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh asked if a leader of the Congress party could not ask for votes for its own candidate, how would the party lead the opposition.
He said looking at Congress' attitude, the AAP decided to abstain from voting for the election.
"Nitish Kumar had called Arvind Kejriwal seeking support for NDA candidate, but Kejriwal refused. If Nitish could call, why can't Gandhi?" Singh told PTI.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has three members in the Upper House.
"The Congress is the biggest obstacle in Opposition unity. The Congress party takes the AAP for granted. If Rahul Gandhi would have asked AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal for the party's vote, we would have supported them," Singh told reporters after the election.
Meanwhile, some leaders felt that a candidate from among other opposition parties should have been fielded in place of a Congress candidate in the election.
They cited the example of JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, who called up and sought the support of some non-aligned independent parties for the NDA's candidate.
The leaders said the Congress candidate closed chances of getting votes from some other parties who did not wish to be seen close to any camp.
"We may have lost a battle, but not the war," Hariprasad told PTI after the election, saying the opposition unity was very much intact and would trounce the ruling coalition in the 2019 general elections.
"We still are united in our opposition to the BJP and NDA. Today's result shows the desperation of the government. The PM had to be on phone to get votes for the NDA candidate. The election is certainly not the end of the world for us. These are just the warm-up matches for the world cup and it should be played and there the voters are different," TMC leader Derek O'Brien said.
Incidentally, the opposition parties had not put up a candidate from their respective parties and had left it to the Congress to field its leader for the election.