The Rajya Sabha polls in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka, had turned into a high political drama between the BJP and the opposition parties. Though in Rajasthan, giving a jolt to BJP with one of its MLAs voting in favour of Cong’s Pramod Tiwari, one BJP MLA voted in favour of BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari instead of independent Dr. Subhash Chandra, the grand-old-party secured victory on 3 seats while the BJP on one.
On the other hand, in Haryana, there was a heavy political tussle between the BJP and the Congress party. In the evening, the Congressmen announced the victory of their senior leader Ajay Maken, but after the BJP supported independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma filed a complaint to ED for recounting, demanding the dismissal of votes of 2 INC MLAs – BB Batra and Kiran Chaudhary. The recounting began in the midnight, and both, Ajay Maken and Kartikeya Sharma bagged 29 votes, after which, the second category votes were counted, in which, Kartikeya Sharma defeated Cong’s Ajay Maken.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan, has suspended its MLA Shobharani Kushwaha as she voted in favour of the Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari, in Haryana, Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi turned out to be a key player behind Ajay Maken’s defeat. CM Manohar Lal Khattar said that INC Kuldeep Bishnoi has voted in favour of the BJP. Now all eyes are set on the Congress high command if it takes any action against Kuldeep Bishnoi.
Whereas in Maharashtra, the BJP and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Shivsena – NCP – Congress alliance) won 3 seats each. There was a tough battle for the sixth seat where the BJP won, defeating Shiv Sena’s candidate in recounting. BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik bagged 41 votes, while Shivsena candidate Sanjay Pawar was able to get just 33 votes. Similarly in Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 3 seats while the Congress was able to win one, the JD(S)’s score remains zero this time.
• Who won from where? Here’s the complete list-
1). Maharashtra:
BJP – 3 seats:
Piyush Goyal
Anil Bonde
Dhananjay Mahadik
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – 3 seats:
Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena)
Praful Patel (NCP)
Imran Pratapgarhi (Indian National Congress)
(Shivsena’s Sanjay Pawar lost)
2). Karnataka:
BJP – 3 seats:
Nirmala Sitharaman
Jaggesh
Lehar Singh Siroya
Indian National Congress – 1 seat:
Jairam Ramesh
(Congress’ second candidate and JD(S) candidate lost)
3). Rajasthan:
Indian National Congress – 3 seats:
Pramod Tiwari
Mukul Wasnik
Randeep Surjewala
BJP – 1 seat:
Ghanshyam Tiwari
(Independent Subhash Chandra lost)
4). Haryana –
BJP – 2 seats:
Krishna Lal Pawar
Kartikeya Sharma (independent)
(Congress candidate Ajay Maken lost)
Amongst the total 16 seats of 4 states where the Rajya Sabha elections were held, the BJP won 9 seats, while the opposition was able to secure 7, with the INC winning 5, while 1 each for Shivsena and NCP from Maharashtra.
