NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha polls to 16 seats across four states on Friday saw some last-minute drama in Haryana and Maharashtra leading to a pause in counting while the BJP and the Congress mopped up four seats each. Past-midnight, the Election Commission gave the green light for counting in both states.
While the BJP won three in Karnataka and one in Rajasthan, the Congress picked up three in Rajasthan and one in Karnataka. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot led from the front to keep his flock together and get his party’s candidates R S Surjewala (43 votes), Mukul Wasnik (42 votes) and Pramod Tiwari (41 votes) into the Rajya Sabha with the support of all Independents and other smaller parties. The lone BJP winner was Ghanshyam Tiwari (43). As reported in these columns a day ago, media baron Subhash Chandra fell by the wayside though he was backed by the BJP.
A bit of cross-voting added to the day’s drama. The dramatis personae were Rajasthan BJP MLA Shobha Rani and two Karnataka JD(S) MLAs, K Srinivas Gowda and S R Srinivas (they reportedly put blank papers in the ballot box). The BJP promptly suspended Shobha Rani and sought a reply within seven days for defying the party whip.
In Karnataka, the BJP won three seats while the Congress got one. With the JD(S) and Congress fielding candidates for the same seat, the BJP managed to get one more from the state. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (45 votes), actor-politician Jaggesh (44 votes), and MLC Lehar Singh Siroya (33 votes) won the three seats for the BJP while the fourth was bagged by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh (46 votes).
Both sides at EC door
In Maharashtra, counting was put on hold after BJP’s objections citing violations of the code of conduct. BJP’s Parag Alwani said NCP’s Jitendra Awhad, Congress minister Yashomati Thakur and Shiv Sena’s Suhas Kande handed their ballot papers to the party’s authorised agents. As per law, MLAs have the right to show their ballot paper to their party agents but not give it to them