CHANDIGARH: After Congress nominee Ajay Maken lost the Rajya Sabha polls from Haryana, senior party leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Monday that the poll results were being scrutinised to identify the party MLA whose vote was declared as invalid.
Amid a blame game in the party's state unit, MLA from the Faridabad NIT assembly constituency Neeraj Sharma said the Congress should identify the "black sheep" whose vote was cancelled.
Asked about Maken's defeat, Hooda told reporters in Rohtak that the party is analysing the election results in detail.
"We are scrutinising (the results) to identify which Congress MLA's vote was cancelled. The counting agent of the Congress knows the ballot number of that MLA," he said.
The Congress had 31 MLAs and needed as many votes to win the Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana, but one of its legislators, Kuldeep Bishnoi, cross-voted and another's vote was cancelled.
In the June 10 polls for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar and BJP-JJP-backed Independent candidate and media baron Kartikeya Sharma won.
After Maken's loss, a blame game has erupted in the party's state unit, with MLA Neeraj Sharma on Monday claiming that the invalid vote tilted the scales in favour of Kartikeya Sharma resulting in Maken's defeat.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Neeraj Sharma claimed his party MLA's vote polled was declared invalid because it had a tick mark instead of a numerical '1' against the party nominee's name.
He said while it became well known that Kuldeep Bishnoi had cross-voted, the party should identify the "black sheep" whose vote was declared invalid otherwise the needle of suspicion will revolve around all the 30 Congress MLAs.
"Instead of putting a straight line or 1, a tick mark was made, which indicates that this has been done intentionally. Due to one black sheep, all our efforts went in vain and our party nominee lost," said Sharma.
He also said the party leadership should soon convene a Congress Legislature Party meeting.
"The black sheep should be identified and action taken against that person," he demanded.