Rajya Sabha election: My vote is not for sale, says Haryana independent MLA

CHANDIGARH: Balraj Kundu, an independent MLA from Mehem and coordinator of Jan Sewak Manch on Friday announced to not cast his vote during the biennial elections of two seats of Rajya Sabha from Haryana.
Kundu is one of the seven independent MLAs in the state assembly.
In the elections, independents hold the key.
All the senior leaders of Congress, BJP and JJP had approached him.
While, former union minister Venod Sharma, whose son Kartikeya is contesting as an independent, also approached Kundu on Thursday evening.
Despite meeting all, Kundu did not disclose his stand.
Rest of the independent MLAs, JJP and some BJP MLAs and one MLA each of HLP and INLD annpiunced to support Kartikeya.
"Mera vote bikau nahin. Main Chudhary Devi Lal ki karambhoomi se vidhayak chunkar aaya hun. Mujhe na koyee khareed sakta hai, na dara sakta hai. (My vote is not up for sale. (I have been elected from the land of Chaudhary Devi Lal. Nobody can buy my support nor threaten or intimidate me)," said Kundu.
"I have taken this conscious decision while keeping in mind the faith of people of my constituency as well as the people of Haryana. These days, MLAs have been made a saleable commodity and people are putting price tag on them. Secondly, I cannot vote for those who are involved in scams and have always worked against the farmers. Similarly, I can't vote for Congress as they have fielded an outsider," said Kundu.
Notably, Kundu's absence has spoiled the arithmetics of all the three candidates as only 89 votes were polled.