RS polls: Wary of cross-voting, Cong shifts 28 Haryana MLAs to Chhattisgarh

The Congress Thursday moved 28 of its Haryana MLAs to Raipur in Chhattisgarh in an attempt to avoid poaching of legislators and thwart any possibility of cross-voting during the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls for two seats.

The Congress has fielded its general secretary Ajay Maken for the elections, while the BJP has nominated Krishan Lal Panwar.

Kartikeya Sharma, son of former union minister Venod Sharma and son-in-law of former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, has also entered the fray as an independent with the BJP is supporting him, making the contest for the second seat interesting.

As many as 31 MLA votes are required to win the first seat, and 30 for the second. The BJP, which has 40 MLAs, is sure to get one seat and it will have nine surplus MLA votes.

The ruling party is seeking to disturb the Congress' calculations with the help of 10 MLAs of the JJP, cross-voting and by wooing Independents and lawmakers from other parties.

The Congress has 31 MLAs in total and needs as many votes to win a seat, but a sulking Kuldeep Bishnoi could throw a spanner.

With the entry of Kartikeya Sharma as an Independent, the main opposition party in Haryana does not want to leave anything to chance in order to secure one Rajya Sabha seat.

The sources said the party had summoned all its 31 legislators from the state to Delhi for a meeting on Thursday to build support for Maken's candidature, but Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi did not turn up.

The 30 party legislators arrived at the residence of Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda in Delhi this morning and 28 of them later left for the airport in a bus, the sources said.

They later boarded flights to Raipur in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and have been lodged in a resort there, the sources said.

They said Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kiran Chaudhary have not gone to Raipur and are in the national capital.

BJP ally Jannayak Janta Party has already said that its 10 MLAs will support Sharma. The JJP had also expressed hope that Sharma would be able to get the necessary support for his victory.

The Rajya Sabha polling is also being linked to the prestige of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as it will be his first challenge after the party appointed his loyalist Udai Bhan as the state unit chief in place of Kumari Selja.

Though the Congress is confident that its candidate Ajay Maken will not face any problem in his victory, the party sources said that the cross-voting on the polling day could not be ruled out.

For the first seat, the BJP candidate needs support of 31 candidates and for the second seat, the candidate needs 30 votes.

The Congress has 31 MLAs, the number which is enough for ensuring victory to its candidate.

But as Kuldeep Bishnoi has been sulking over not being considered for a party post during the revamp of state unit, it is going to be a task for the party to keep the flock together.

Bishnnoi could not be contacted.

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 40 MLAs while the Congress has 31. The JJP, which is an ally of the BJP, has 10 legislators while the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party one each. There seven Independents.

Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana will fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra, who was elected as an independent with the BJP's support, and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring.

Polling for two Rajya Sabha seats will be held on June 10.

Meanwhile, around 40 Rajasthan Congress MLAs and some Independents were also moved to a hotel in Udaipur as the party tries to keep its flock together before the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections.