Singhvi moves HC over loss to BJP candidate in H.P. Rajya Sabha poll
Cong. candidate has challenged interpretation of rules leading to defeat
ongress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who lost the Rajya Sabha poll from Himachal Pradesh recently, on Saturday approached the High Court, challenging the interpretation of rules surrounding the draw of lots following a tie in the poll.
On February 27 this year, Mr. Singhvi lost the election for the lone Rajya Sabha seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Harsh Mahajan on the basis of a draw of lots after both the candidates ended up tied in vote count.
After moving the application, Mr. Singhvi said he has challenged the election purely on legal grounds. “One of the grounds is that there’s nothing in the law, neither in the Act nor in the rules which compels an interpretation, that requires that the person whose name is drawn in
Cthe draw of lots is a loser. If our contentions are accepted ultimately by the High Court, the result declared would have to be announced as wrong,” he said in Shimla.
The loss had come as a major setback for the Congress given that as the ruling party in the State with a government led by its Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, it had the majority number of 40 MLAs and appeared set for a comfortable victory. In the 68member Assembly, votes of 35 MLAs were required for a win.
However, crossvoting by six (now former) Congress legislators – Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Davinder Bhutto – helped the BJP to force a tie in the battle for the Upper House, and eventually win the seat through the draw of lots system. Congress’s Singhvi and BJP’s Mahajan secured 34 votes each.