New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has managed to win seats in Raja Sabha elections in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and the Congress party in Rajasthan.
In Karnataka, BJP won three Rajya Sabha seats, the Congress got one seat and the Janata Dal-Secular drew a blank in the results of the biennial elections to the upper House.
The second candidate put by Congress also lost the election. All three BJP candidates – India’s current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-turned-politician Jaggesh and Lehar Singh Siroya won the polls.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too won the polls. Janata Dal-Secular`s Kupendra Reddy and Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan lost the election. Reddy got 30 votes and Khan got 26. BJP general secretary CT Ravi said that BJP candidates got support from other parties.
For Congress, bogged down by repeated defeats and defections post-2019, the victory in Rajasthan was uplifting as it demonstrated better management against BJP. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot cornered the credit for the party’s success.
Congress candidates Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari got 43, 42 and 41 votes, respectively, while BJP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari obtained 43 votes. The BJP-supported Independent Subhash Chandra bagged only 30, a report by Times of India said.
One vote of the Congress was rejected while BJP MLA Shobha Rani Kushwaha voted for Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari in a big surprise. She has been suspended from the party.
BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and the saffron party-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma were declared elected for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, after a high drama over allegations of violations of polling rules that delayed the counting by more than seven hours.
The counting of votes began past midnight and the results were announced after 2am on Saturday.
According to Election Commission officials, Congress candidates Ajay Maken did not get enough votes. The party said one of its MLAs cross-voted while the vote of an MLA was declared invalid, Times of India reported.
In Maharashtra, the BJP emerged victorious in three of the six Rajya Sabha seats, while the ruling combine questioned the eight-hour delay in counting of votes.
Both BJP and the Shiv Sena approached the Election Commission, alleging cross voting and seeking disqualification of votes. The poll panel directed the Rajya Sabha election returning officer of Maharashtra to reject the vote cast by Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande, after which the counting of votes got underway after 1 am. The first result was out in two hours.
The BJP winners include Piyush Goyal and former state minister Anil Bonde, and Dhananjay Mahadik. Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Praful Patel and Congress’ Imran Pratapgarhi also won the fiercely-fought elections.
Of the 284 valid votes, Goyal polled 48, Bonde 48, Mahadik 41.56, Raut 41, Pratapgarhi 44 and Patel 43. The high-stake battle for the sixth turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and BJP trading charges, even approaching the Election Commission.
After the stunning setback, however, Congress leaders admitted shortcomings in coordination in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi.
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