The Rajya Sabha Elections for 2 seats in Haryana have turned out to be an interesting political battle between the BJP and the Congress party, with Kartikeya Sharma filing nomination as an independent candidate. The Congress party has 31 MLAs, which is a comfortable number for its victory on one seat, for which, senior leader Ajay Maken has been fielded. While the BJP has fielded Krishna Lal Pawar as its candidate.
But the matter of concern for Congress, is Kuldeep Bishnoi. A few days back, Congress party announced Udai Bhan as its new state unit chief, who belongs to former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp. Kuldeep Bishnoi was expecting the party high command to announce him as the new Haryana Congress chief, which didn’t happen. Unhappy with the party’s decision, Bishnoi’s supporters even lashed out at party high command on social media, though Bishnoi, in a tweet, asked all his supporters to have patience till he meets Rahul Gandhi.
As per the numbers, the Congress and BJP can comfortably win one Rajya Sabha seat each, as both have more than 30 MLAs, but Kartikeya Sharma filing nomination as an independent candidate, has turned this election into an interesting political battle. Kartikeya’s name was proposed by JJP (the alliance partner of BJP in Haryana) and several independent MLAs who are supporting the Khattar govt.
After BJP’s 31 MLAs supporting its RS candidate Krishna Lal Pawar, 9 MLAs would still be left. Adding this number with the 10 MLAs of JJP, 7 independents, and one MLA each from Haryana Lokhit Party and INLD, makes it a total of 28, just 3 less than the Congress’ figure of 31. That’s why the Rajya Sabha battle in Haryana has turned into an interesting political tussle, due to which, the Congress high command has called all its MLAs, including Kuldeep Bishnoi, to Delhi.
In 2016, the votes of 16 Congress MLAs were dismissed due to the usage of a “different ink”, leading to the victory of Dr. Subhash Chandra with BJP’s support. This time, with Kuldeep Bishnoi’s disappointment, the troubles for the Congress party have increased. Recently, Bishnoi had even skipped the meeting of party MLAs in Haryana. Now with 2 Rajya Sabha seats and 3 candidates, this political battle has turned more interesting. Now all eyes are set on Kuldeep Bishnoi. If the Congress high command succeeds in persuading him, the way to Rajya Sabha for Ajay Maken would be easy, but if the high command fails to persuade Bishnoi, the troubles for the grand old party would definitely rise in Haryana.
