BJP secures Himachal's lone Rajya Sabha seat with cross-voting edge

Cross-voting by at least half a dozen legislators of the ruling Congress and support from three Independents helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the lone Rajya Sabha (RS) seat up for election from Himachal Pradesh.

The result puts a question mark on the longevity of the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government in the hill state, the only Congress government in northern India.

According to Congress sources, the disgruntled legislators want the party to replace Sukhu if it wishes to save the government.

Congress candidate Abhishek Singhvi lost to the BJP’s Harsh Mahajan.

According to a PTI report from Shimla, the contest was tied at 34–34 votes, after which Mahajan was declared the winner by a draw of lots.

 

After the result was announced, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said democracy would be “destroyed” if the BJP continued to bring down elected governments. Kharge said the Congress would challenge the election as both candidates got 34 votes each, and the decision was made based on a lottery.

Earlier in the day, Sukhu alleged that five to six Congress Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) were “kidnapped” and whisked away by the Central Reserve Police Force and Haryana Police.

It is uncertain whether the BJP would move a no-trust motion against the Sukhu government. The BJP has 25 MLAs, and the Congress has 40, with three Independents in a 68-member Assembly.

In Karnataka, of the four RS seats for which voting was held, the Congress won three, and the BJP won one. The Congress secured three seats, with legislators of the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), and BJP voting for Congress candidates.

Congress’ Ajay Maken, G C Chandrashekhar, and Syed Naseer Hussain, and BJP’s Narayansa K Bhandage, were elected. Five candidates, including D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S) who lost the election, were in the fray for the four seats.

BJP MLA S T Somashekar voted for Maken, while another party legislator, Arbail Shivaram Hebbar, abstained. The BJP has sought the disqualification of the two MLAs.

The BJP (66 MLAs) and the JD(S) (19 MLAs) fielded Kupendra Reddy despite lacking the requisite votes to get him elected. The National Democratic Alliance partners said they were expecting “conscience votes”, apparently from the rival Congress camp, in favour of Reddy.

Somashekar said he heard the “voice of his conscience” and voted in favour of the Congress, “which built schools and carried out developmental works in his constituency”. Hebbar, too, said he abstained as he listened to his “conscience”.

In Uttar Pradesh (UP), cross-voting was suspected by at least half a dozen Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators, which could help the BJP win eight seats, instead of the seven it was expected to win based on the party’s legislative strength and that of its allies.

SP Chief Whip Manoj Pandey quit while polling was underway. As many as eight SP MLAs also did not attend a meeting called by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday. SP’s three candidates were Ramji Lal Suman, Jaya Bachchan, and Alok Ranjan.

The elections were held to fill 10 RS vacancies in UP, one in Himachal, and four in Karnataka. Of the 56 vacancies, 41 were elected unopposed last week.