BJP seals thrilling wins on RS seats in Maha, Haryana IN THE UPPER HOUSE, BJP MAINTAINS DOMINANCE
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulled off a pair of thrilling early morning victories in Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra and Haryana on Saturday, striking a blow to the Opposition that was unable to keep its flock of legislators together and prevent cross-voting.
The BJP won three of the six seats in Maharashtra after its third candidate (after Piyush Goyal and Anil Bonde) Dhananjay Mahadik beat Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Pawar in a cliffhanger. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won three seats – Nationalist Congress Party’s Praful Patel, Congress’s Imran Pratapgarhi and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut – but it will be little consolation after the embarrassing loss of Pawar, who fell short after independent lawmakers switched to the BJP, cancellation of a vote due to alleged violation of rules, and inability of two jailed ministers to vote.
In Haryana, the BJP won one seat (Krishan Lal Panwar) and media executive Kartikeya Sharma, who was backed by the party, defeated Congress’s Ajay Maken by a razor- thin margin. The results are a blow for senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was unable to resolve differences with his rival Kuldeep Bishnoi, who cross voted. Another Congress vote was disqualified, handing Sharma a narrow victory.
Voting for the Rajya Sabha elections finished at 4pm on Friday but counting was stalled in Maharashtra and Haryana over a web of allegations and counter allegations of malpractice and bias. The Election Commission gave the go-ahead for counting in these two states only around 1am on Saturday.
In two other states, however, the results were announced on Friday. In Rajasthan, the Congress
won three seats and the BJP one. Congress nominees Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari won as did BJP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari. Tiwari defeated BJPbacked independent candidate, media baron Subhash Chandra.
In Karnataka, the BJP won
NEW DELHI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party effectively retained its tally of 95 seats in the Rajya Sabha after the latest round of biennial election, once again demonstrating the ruling dispensation’s ability to pull extra votes and win key seats.
In the fiercely-fought poll, the BJP won three seats each from Maharashtra and Karnataka. Its candidates won in Rajasthan and Haryana and an independent candidate it backed in Haryana also won. Purely on numbers, it should have won two each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and the independent candidate backed by it should not have won. Thus, effectively, the party won three more seats than it was expected to.
The BJP’s ascent in the Rajya Sabha had lifted its tally from 68 seats at the beginning of 2018 to 95 before this round of biennial elections. Now, the ruling party has effectively maintained that tally with the help of an independent in Haryana.