27 Haryana Congress MLAs ‘herded’ to Chhattisgarh resort
Congress nominee Ajay Maken on sticky wicket due to entry of independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma
KULDEEP BISHNOI, WHO IS UPSET AT BEING DENIED THE STATE PARTY PRESIDENT’S CHAIR AND DID NOT ACCOMPANY THE MLAS, COULD TURN OUT TO BE THE SPOILSPORT
CHANDIGARH: Fearing horse trading in the June 10 Rajya Sabha election, 27 Haryana Congress MLAs were herded and dispatched to a lake resort in Raipur, the capital of Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh on Thursday.
The Congress, which is the principal Opposition in the state assembly, has 31 MLAs in the House.
Four leaders who did not accompany the rest are former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kiran Choudhry, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Chiranjeev Rao. Hooda’s son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda, AICC in-charge for Haryana Vivek Bansal and two working presidents also accompanied them. They are expected to spend a week at the lake resort in Raipur before they return to Chandigarh for polling on June 10.
The party MLAs assembled at Deepender’s New Delhi residence on Thursday afternoon from where they boarded a bus for the airport. “The BJP should worry about its flock and keep an eye on them,” Deepender said in response to a query.
The move to push off the party MLAs to a Congress-ruled state comes in the wake of possibility of party MLAs switching sides to facilitate the victory of businessman Kartikeya Sharma, son of former Congress minister Venod Sharma and son-in-law of Congress leader Kuldeep Sharma.
BJP assured of win, Cong on sticky wicket
Three candidates – BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar, Congress nominee Ajay Maken and independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma – are in fray for the two Upper House seats from Haryana.
While the BJP candidate is assured of a win, Congress’ Maken seems to be in trouble due to Kartikeya’s entry. As per the mathematical formula for the Rajya Sabha polls, 31 votes are required to win the first of the two seats and the party with majority, the BJP and its allies, have 59 votes. Theoretically, the Congress candidate will sail through if all 31 party MLAs voted for him.
However, since the remaining 28 votes of the BJP and its allies are expected to go to Kartikeya as second preference vote, some shrewd manoeuvring by the BJP and its allies can upset the prospects of the Congress nominee.
“Cross-voting, abstentions or a few invalid votes of Congress MLAs will spell trouble for Maken,” said a Congress leader not willing to be named.
BJP, allies to support Kartikeya
The BJP, with 40 MLAs in the assembly, has the support of its coalition partner, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) which has 10 MLAs.
The JJP has already extended support to Kartikeya and BJP’s support is implicit. There are seven independents who are expected to vote the way BJP wants them to. Lone INLD MLA Abhay Chautala and HLP MLA Gopal Kanda are also expected to vote for Kartikeya.
Congress MLA from Adampur, Kuldeep Bishnoi, who is upset at being denied the state party president’s chair and did not accompany the MLAs, could turn out to be the spoilsport.
However, Hooda said the party high-command will persuade Bishnoi to vote for Maken.
Anti-defection law does not apply to RS polls
The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) to the Constitution is not invoked for the RS polls as the party whip is not issued and MLAs cannot be disqualified for voting in a particular manner.
The Supreme Court in its August 2006 judgment held that the contention that the right of expression of the voter at an election for the Council of States is affected by an open ballot in not tenable, as an elected MLA would not face any disqualification from the Membership of the House for voting in a particular manner. He may at the most attract action from the political party to which he belongs, the SC said.