Jaipur: Rajasthan MLAs will use around 200 pens during the elections for three vacant Rajya Sabha seats today, making it the first state in the country where each of its MLAs will cast their vote using a separate pen.
According to reports, the demand was raised by the Congress Chief Whip in the state Assembly, Mahesh Joshi and the Election Commission promptly accepted the demand.
The demand was reportedly raised to avoid controversy which originated during elections to Haryana Rajya Sabha seats and also due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Mahesh Joshi said,"We made a request to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Rajasthan, Anand Kumar keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic and to avoid the controversy which engulfed the Haryana Rajya Sabha polls in 2016."
In Haryana, 13 of the Congress votes in the 90-member assembly were deemed invalid because they were marked with a different pen than provided by the EC.
This invalidation of votes gave an unexpected victory to BJP-backed media baron Subhash Chandra over Congress-backed candidate RK Anand.
In Rajasthan, Congress is incumbent and in a safe position to win two out of three seats. Soon after the reports of resentment came in, Congress moved it's MLAs to a luxury hotel in a way to keep the party intact.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot even filed a complaint with Special Operations Group to probe the alleged attempts to topple the state government by poaching Congress legislators through money transfers
Congress has nominated it's General Secretary incharge KC Venugopal from Rajasthan along with Neeraj Dangi, which are supposedly to be win by the party as the chances of cross-voting appears to be thin.
