Hyderabad: Fifteen Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh witnessed a fierce contest as they went to polls on Tuesday amid concerns of cross-voting. The voting process commenced at 9 am in the upper house amid fears of cross voting which eventually turned true. The results were announced at the end of the day.
Here are the updates as the results unfold:
- Congress candidate for Himachal Pradesh Abhishek Manu Singhvi says, "...I would also like to thank the nine persons (MLAs) because they have taught me a lot about human nature, its fickleness or its resoluteness. They supped with us...So, I think we are bad judges of human character, they are obviously better judges of human character."
- Uttar Pradesh: Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders and workers celebrate in Lucknow as the party wins 8 of the 10 Rajya Sabha seats in the state. Samajwadi Party (SP) has won 2. Read More...
- Himachal Pradesh: BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan wins. He was pitted against Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Congress had to face defeat after nine MLAs crossvoted in BJP's favour earlier in the day. Both Singhvi and Mahajan polled 34 votes each. After that a draw of lots was carried out in which Mahajan was declared the winner. Read More...
- Karnataka: Congress won three seats, BJP one. Ajay Maken, G C Chandrasekhar, Syed Naseer Hussain (all Cong), Narayansa K Bhandage (BJP) win Rajya Sabha elections in the southern state. Five candidates were in the fray for the four seats in Karnataka, including JD(S) contestant D Kupendra Reddy. The elections were marred by cross-voting. While one of the BJP MLAs, S T Somashekar, voted for the Congress's Maken, the other, A Shivaram Hebbar, abstained. Read More...
What happened during the day in these three states.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had nominated eight candidates while three from the Samajwadi Party contested for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats. At present there are 399 members in the 403-member UP Assembly with four vacancies. Out of the 399 MLAs, 395 exercised their voting rights on Tuesday: three of them could not vote as they are in jail, while officials could not confirm the other MLA who did not cast the ballot.
The Samajwadi Party on the other hand fielded MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman. The BJP and the SP are the two largest parties in the 403-member state assembly with 252 MLAs and 108 MLAs respectively. The Congress, an alliance partner of the SP, has two seats. To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs nearly 37 first-preference votes.
In Karnataka, all parties had issued whips to their MLAs, the voters in the poll. Likewise in Himachal Pradesh, Congress also issued whip to all its MLAs to vote for the party candidate. The BJP accused the ruling party of pressurising the members by saying that the MLAs have the right to vote as per their wish.
The Congress Karnataka chief and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar denied any possibility of cross-voting by the party MLAs. On the contrary, BJP party MLA S T Somashekar voted for Congress in a setback to BJP-JD(S) alliance. Somashekar, who is upset with the BJP and had been rebellious against the party, voted in favour of the Congress candidate, the BJP leaders said and added that the party will be exploring legal option to deal with him.
Earlier, Congress had shifted its MLAs to a private hotel in the southern state to prevent undue influences. The Congress, which is confident of winning three seats has fielded G C Chandrashekhar, Naseer Hussain and former union minister Ajay Maken.
In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP forced a contest by fielding Harsh Mahajan against Congress's Abhishek Manu Singhvi for the state's single seat. In a jolt to Congress, sources say that 6 to 9 MLAs cross voted in favour of BJP during the polling for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the hill state.
On Monday, the BJP nominee complained to the Chief Election Commissioner saying that the Congress has issued a three-line whip to its MLAs for the polls, which he said was unethical. The Congress has 40 out of 68 MLAs in the state Assembly to the BJP's 25.
