Kudeep BishnoiRajya Sabha Election Voting Live Updates: The Congress party on Saturday expelled its Haryana MLA, Kuldeep Bishnoi, from all his present party positions for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections that concluded on Friday. According to the Haryana Congress, Bishnoi, an MLA from the Adampur constituency in Hisar, did not vote for Ajay Maken, Congress’s candidate from Haryana, and cross-voted in favour of BJP-JJP-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, who eventually edged out Maken.
After the BJP managed to win three seats in the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha Polls, in a major blow to the MVA, senior party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said it was a “convincing” victory and attributed it to meticulous planning as well as team work, PTI reported. Speaking to reporters at the Vidhan Bhavan here, Fadnavis also took a dig at Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, who was one of the candidates in the fray, saying that BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik secured more votes than him.
Meanwhile, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar said it was because the saffron party had managed to win over some of the Independent candidates that were supporting the ruling alliance. “This has happened largely due to Devendra Fadnavis’s ability to win over people with all the measures at his disposal,” Pawar said.
Voting for 16 vacant seats in Rajya Sabha in four states — Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra — concluded at 4 pm on Friday. The high-stakes battle turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and BJP trading charges, even approaching the Election Commission. In Karnataka, BJP candidates Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh and MLC Lehar Singh Siroya won three RS seats for the party, Jairam Ramesh clinched one for Congress while JD(S) drew blank. The Congress hit a home run in Rajasthan, bagging three seats while the BJP won the remaining one. The BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, backed by the saffron party and its ally JJP, have won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, officials said early Saturday.
A view of Parliament. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
A day after Rajya Sabha elections saw ruling BJP winning three seats in Karnataka, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has remarked that no matter whether the Congress or the JD(S) is considered the “B team” of the saffron party, both Opposition parties would now agree that the BJP is the “A team”.
Bommai’s remark on Saturday was a reference to the “BJP’s B team” charge often levelled by the Congress and the JD(S) against each other. “We are not bothered as to who is the ‘B’ team. Though the Congress is expressing confidence of scoring a big victory in the Legislative Council polls, the reality is the BJP has a very good chance to triumph. There is complete unity in the BJP,” he said in Belagavi. Read more
The Congress party on Saturday expelled its Haryana MLA, Kuldeep Bishnoi, from all his present party positions for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections that concluded on Friday.
According to the Haryana Congress, Bishnoi, an MLA from the Adampur constituency in Hisar, did not vote for Ajay Maken, Congress’s candidate from Haryana, and cross-voted in favour of BJP-JJP-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, who eventually edged out Maken. Read more
The three-cornered contest for two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana Friday turned out to be a thriller. While the ruling BJP’s official nominee Krishan Panwar romped home, the principal Opposition Congress’s candidate Ajay Maken failed to sail through despite his party’s adequate numbers in a dead heat whose outcome could be determined only in the wee hours of Saturday. The Independent candidate backed by the BJP and its ally JJP, Kartikeya Sharma, media baron, edged out Maken because of the Congress MLAs and party satrap Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s detractors, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhry. According to Congress sources, while Bishnoi did not vote for Maken, Choudhry “wrongly cast her ballot”. Read more
"We were ahead of Independent candidate in preference 1 result. We objected that 1 vote which was given to independent should be cancelled. But our vote was cancelled & their rejected vote was accepted. We're getting this examined legally," Congress' Ajay Maken on RS poll result.
Speaking about the recent Rajya Sabha Poll result in Maharashtra, NCP Chief Supriya Sule said: "I congratulate BJP on their performance. We accept our defeat. We clearly need to introspect on what went right and what went wrong."
On Friday, BJP MLA from Dholpur, Shobharani Kushwah, sprung a surprise by cross voting in favour of a Congress candidate during the Rajya Sabha polls.
While she faces the risk of being expelled from the BJP, over five years ago, it was her husband whose Assembly membership was terminated and he was jailed, leading to Shobharani’s election.
And now, her cross voting is also being linked to her husband’s imprisonment, while she herself hasn’t offered any explanations yet. A second term MLA, Kushwah is the wife of jailed former MLA B L Kushwah. In December 2016, the then Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal had terminated the Assembly membership of B L Kushwah, who was with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) then, after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘honour’ killing. Read more.
The dramatic twists and turns in the Rajya Sabha polling for two seats in Haryana ended in the early hours of Saturday, with the Election Commission (EC) declaring BJP’s nominee Krishan Panwar and BJP-JJP backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma victorious. Congress’s Ajay Maken lost to Sharma.
According to details shared by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, while one Congress vote was rejected, Kuldeep Bishnoi (Congress MLA from Adampur) “voted as per his inner conscience” and “did not vote for Congress nominee Ajay Maken”. Read more.
After the BJP managed to win three seats in the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha Polls, Senior party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said it was a “convincing” victory and attributed it to meticulous planning as well as team work, PTI reported. Speaking to reporters at the Vidhan Bhavan here, Fadnavis also took a dig at Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, who was one of the candidates in the fray, saying that BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik secured more votes than him.
After the BJP managed to win three seats in the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha Polls, in a major blow to the MVA, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar said it was because the saffron party had managed to win over some of the Independent candidates that were supporting the ruling alliance. “This has happened largely due to Devendra Fadnavis’s ability to win over people with all the measures at his disposal,” Pawar said.
After Shiv Sena's Sanjay Pawar lost the Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra to BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik, party leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday alleged that the BJP put pressure on the Election Commission to get his party's one vote disqualified.
Talking to reporters, Raut, who himself managed to win a seat, said the BJP's victory was not as huge as it was being made out to be, and added that the Sena's second candidate secured more first preference votes.
"I don't think the BJP's candidate has won. The first preference votes of 33 were secured by Pawar," Raut said, adding that BJP's Mahadik bagged 27 votes as first preference. "He won on the basis of the second preference vote," Raut said.
The bitter contest that went to the wire saw three candidates of the BJP - Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Mahadik - winning the polls. The Sena (Raut), NCP (Praful Patel) and Congress (Imran Pratapgarhi) won one seat each. (PTI)
In a major setback for the Uddhav Thackeray led government in Maharashtra, the BJP and ruling MVA alliance won three seats each.
Out of the six seats in Maharashtra, BJP's Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik won one seat each. From the MVA alliance, Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, Congress' Imran Pratapgarhi and NCP's Praful Patel won one seat each.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala were among eight candidates elected to Rajya Sabha Friday from Karnataka and Rajasthan, while counting of votes in Maharashtra and Haryana was delayed with rival parties trading charges.
Although the BJP faced an embarrassment in Rajasthan with one of its MLAs switching sides, its gamble in Karnataka paid off as its third candidate won because of cross-voting by a JD(S) MLA and an independent legislator.
The BJP won three of the four seats in Karnataka while the Congress heaved a sigh of relief in party-ruled Rajasthan where all three of its candidates won, overcoming fears of cross-voting and horse trading. The high-stake battle for 16 seats — 6 in Maharashtra, 4 each in Karnataka and Rajasthan and 2 in Haryana — turned out to be a nail-biting affair with the Congress and BJP trading charges, even approaching the Election Commission. Read more.
"This is not my victory. It is a victory for Team Congress. Entire Congress party, PCC chief DK Shivakumar, CLP leader Siddaramaiah, Chief Whips, all MLAs, everybody voted. Not a single invalid vote,it's really a victory for teamwork. It's Team Congress that has won," Jairam Ramesh said.
In the first round of counting Praful Patel, Imran Pratapgadi, Sanjay Raut, Piyush Goyal and Anil Bonde win. The counting for the six Rajya Sabha polls in Maharashtra which was stopped resumed after nine hours.
BJP's Dhananjay Mhadik pulled the victory in second round of counting fulfilling the required quota of 41 votes.
Objecting to the Election Commission's decision to ask the returning officer in Maharashtra to reject vote cast by Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande in the Rajya Sabha poll, party spokesperson Manisha Kayande on Saturday sought to know the reason behind the poll body's decision.
“Rajya Sabha Election: What is the reason behind disqualification of Suhas Kande? Who exactly is behind the 8-9 hour delay in counting of votes? Isn't this a mockery of democracy?" Kayande tweeted.
The Election Commission has directed the Rajya Sabha election returning officer of Maharashtra to go ahead with the counting of votes which was held up following complaints by the BJP about violation of rules.
The poll panel also directed the returning officer of Maharashtra to reject the vote cast by Suhas Kande. (PTI)
The BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, backed by the saffron party and its ally JJP, have won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, officials said early Saturday, after the counting of votes which was delayed by hours over allegation of violation of rules.
Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken did not get enough votes.
According to a senior Election Commission official here, Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and six transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29. (PTI)
After the voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, MLAs from across the party lines appeared confident and claimed that their nominee would win.
Congress MLA Neeraj Sharma said, “Congress nominee Ajay Maken shall definitely win. We shall get more votes than required”.
Congress nominee Ajay Maken said, “I shall win, 200 per cent. There is no doubt on that”.
Another Congress MLA Bishan Lal Saini said, “No cross voting took place in Congress. BJP should watch out for its own MLAs. Congress is getting at least 35 votes. If this number turns out to be incorrect, I will get my mustache shaved”.
Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi said, “I have voted as per my inner conscience. I showed my vote to the party observer”.
On the other hand, JJP's Ram Kumar Gautam said, “I have voted for Kartikeya Sharma and there is no doubt that Sharma will definitely win. Congress is not able to get the required numbers”.
Earlier in the day, BJP's senior leaders Anil Vij, Kanwarpal Gujjar and Sandeep Singh had claimed that both – BJP's nominee Krishan Panwar and BJP supporter Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma will win. -- ENS inputs
Till 1.30 pm today, 89 out of 90 MLAs of Haryana cast their votes. The votes can be done till 4 pm. Independent MLA from Meham Balraj Kundu has abstained from voting, but efforts were being made by all the sides to convince him to come back to Vidhan Sabha and cast his vote.
Bhupinder Hooda was the last one to cast his vote.
Dholpur MLA, Shobharani Kushwah, has allegedly cross voted in favour of a Congress MLA, sources said. Following this, BJP agent and MLA Rajendra Rathore demanded that the vote be rejected.
In another incident, BJP MLA from Garhi in Banswara, Kailash Chandra Meena, showed his vote to the party’s polling agent Rathore but apparently ended up showing his vote to Congress state president and polling agent Govind Singh Dotasra erroneously too. Dotsara claimed that he had seen the vote so it should be rejected. Read more