Sitharaman, Surjewala amongst 8 elected to RS, row over guidelines breach delays counting in Maha, Haryana

By PTI

BENGALURU/JAIPUR: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior chief Jairam Ramesh have been among the many eight candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka and Rajasthan, whereas counting received delayed in Maharashtra and Haryana amid wrangling by rival events over alleged breach of voting guidelines.

Representations made by the BJP and the Congress and its allies, accusing one another of flouting the open balloting guidelines and looking for invalidation of the votes of some MLAs, are being examined by the Election Commission.

The counting might be taken up solely after the ballot panel offers the go forward. In an emphatic endorsement for the BJP in Karnataka, the ruling occasion had the final chortle because it received all of the three Rajya Sabha seats it contested out of the 4 that went to polls.

The principal opposition Congress managed to win solely one of many two seats for which its nominees have been within the fray, whereas the JD(S) drew a clean.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh, and MLC Lehar Singh Siroya of the BJP, and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh of the Congress have been declared victorious. Sitharaman and Ramesh have been re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

There was suspense over the end result of the combat for the fourth seat, which witnessed a decent contest between all of the three main political events none of which had sufficient votes for a straightforward win.

However, BJP’s Siroya triumphed over Mansoor Ali Khan of the Congress and D Kupendra Reddy (JDS), apparently aided by cross-voting from rival events and the assistance of Independents. In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress received three of the 4 seats and the BJP one.

BJP-backed Independent nominee and media baron Subhash Chandra, whose entry into the fray had added spice to the electoral tussle, fell by the wayside. Chandra, who had received the final RS election as an Independent from Haryana, tried his luck from Rajasthan.

Congress candidates Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari have been declared elected, and so was BJP’s Ghanshyam Tiwari.

In an fascinating growth, BJP MLA Shobharani Kushwah cross-voted in favour of Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari. The BJP promptly suspended her from the occasion’s major membership.

“When everybody knows that 126 MLAs are with us, why did they (BJP) field an independent candidate? They wanted to attempt horse-trading but that did not happen,” a jubilant Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot advised reporters on the Assembly advanced in Jaipur.

The victory of the Congress candidates has despatched out a robust message within the nation, he stated, asserting the occasion will retain energy within the Assembly elections subsequent 12 months. The Congress, with 108 MLAs within the 200-member Assembly, wanted 123 votes to win the three seats. The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) with two MLAs had prolonged help to it.

The ruling occasion additionally had the claimed help of 13 Independents and one Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA, who’s a state minister. On the opposite hand, the BJP had 71 MLAs. After the victory of its occasion candidate, who secured 43 votes, the BJP had 28 surplus votes to assist Chandra’s bid.

Three MLAs of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) too had prolonged help to Chandra, however he nonetheless could not handle the extra votes required for a victory.

However, the counting was held up in Maharashtra after opposition BJP alleged three MLAs of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)–Cabinet ministers Jitendra Awhad (NCP) and Yashomati Thakur (Congress), apart from Shiv Sena legislator Suhas Kande violated the mannequin code for voting.

The Congress retaliated, demanding that the Election Commission invalidate the votes of BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar and Independent MLA Ravi Rana.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole, in a letter to the CEC claimed Mungantiwar “vitiated the voting procedure” by exhibiting his poll paper to individuals apart from his personal occasion’s election brokers.

Rana brazenly displayed the Hanuman Chalisa, a spiritual ebook, and sought to affect different voters, he alleged.

The counting was additionally placed on maintain in Haryana for an identical causes after BJP nominee Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma shot off a missive to the EC, alleging Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhary and B B Batra confirmed their poll papers to unauthorised individuals after marking them and that the episodes have been “duly captured” on cameras.

Prominent among the many candidates who’re anticipated to attain a facile victory in Maharashtra embrace Union minister Piyush Goyal and Shiv Sena’s ubiquitous face and spokesperson Sanjay Raut. Both are sitting Rajya Sabha members from the state.