SRINAGAR: The opposition BJP on Friday caused an upset by winning a seat in the Rajya Sabha polls from Jammu and Kashmir due to cross-voting, while the ruling National Conference (NC) won the remaining three seats.
The polling for the four vacant Rajya Sabha seats in J&K, the first since the abrogation of Article 370, was held in the Assembly earlier in the day.
MLAs cast their votes at three separate polling booths in the Legislative Assembly complex between 9 am and 4 pm. Of the 90-member J&K Assembly, the current strength is 88. While 86 MLAs voted, Peoples Conference chairman and MLA Sajad Gani Lone abstained, and AAP MLA from Doda Mehraj Malik, booked under the PSA and lodged at Kathua jail, cast his vote through postal ballot.
The NC had fielded four candidates - Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Shammi Oberoi, Sajad Kichloo and Imran Nabi Dar - for the four seats, while the BJP fielded Ali Mohammed Mir, Rakesh Mahajan and J&K BJP chief Sat Sharma for three seats.
The NC, which was assured of three seats, secured those, while BJP’s Sat Sharma won the fourth seat, which witnessed cross-voting. Against 28 BJP votes, Sharma received additional votes, surpassing NC candidate Imran Nabi Dar to clinch the seat.
NC’s Chowdhury Ramzan defeated BJP’s Ali Mohammed Mir for the first seat, Sajjad Kichloo (NC) defeated Rakesh Mahajan (BJP) for the second, and NC’s Shammi Oberoi won the third seat.
It will now be interesting to see which MLAs from the NC camp cross-voted in favour of BJP’s Sat Sharma. Despite having the support of all opposition MLAs, the ruling NC was expected to win all four seats.
The four Rajya Sabha seats were contested through three separate notifications. These seats had fallen vacant in February 2021 following the completion of terms of PDP MPs Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Nazir Ahmed Laway, BJP MP Shamsher Singh, and former Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Reacting to the BJP’s victory, Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone, who abstained from voting, posted on X, “So BJP wins the fourth seat. As predicted, fixed match. Axis of the evil — NC and BJP. Thank God I abstained. Imagine what my plight would have been. Now mathematically proved that it was a fixed match. Why did NC poll extra votes for candidate 3? They didn’t need to. They polled 31 votes for candidate 3. Only 29 votes would have sufficed. Even 28. Because BJP was fighting for seat 4. Who cross-voted, whose votes were rejected, and who was hand in glove?”
Lone also alleged that under an understanding with the BJP, the NC had denied a safe seat to its ally, the Congress.
