New Delhi: There is a palpable disquiet in the Congress after many of its MLAs indulged in cross-voting in Bihar, Odisha and Haryana during the Rajya Sabha elections, exposing growing internal faultlines and flippant election management by the leadership. The fact that even the Congress’ widely-anticipated comfortable victory in one Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana turned into a mid-night photo finish with as many as nine Congress MLAs indulging in cross-voting and highly suspicious cancellation (invalidation) of their votes marred the celebration and sent shockwaves about the growing inner rot within.
Some Congress leaders said the party central leadership will try to identify the ‘pole-vaulters’ and fix accountability but party circles feel it will be more a case of trying to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted. Prior to election, there were growing murmurs within the Haryana Congress against the central leadership fielding a lightweight Karamvir Boudh as party candidate despite he being a later entrant to the party.
While the desertion by Congress MLAs in Bihar and Odisha is seen as the growing internal rift in these party units, the Haryana spectacle is being seen in the context of the two party candidates getting ambushed in the past Rajya Sabha elections in the state. While party functionaries — Deepender Hooda and Rajendra Pal Gautam — sought to hail the victory of Boudh but blamed the BJP for engineering the cross-voting, the episode has also sharpened the factional fault lines within the state Congress with rival camps pointing fingers at each other for the ‘spoiler act’. With the BJP-backed independent candidate losing to the Congress nominee by a minute fraction of the total value of votes polled, there is also suspense on whether the former will approach court, questioning the ‘cancellation’ on the one BJP vote that tilted the margin.
Suspends 3 Odisha MLAs :
The Congress in Odisha on Tuesday suspended three MLAs for cross-voting in favour of BJP-backed Independent Dilip Ray in the Rajya Sabha polls and sought their disqualification, terming it a violation of the party whip.
Congress legislature party leader Rama Chandra Kadam also urged the speaker to change the seating arrangement of the three MLAs.
Meanwhile, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar Ram on Tuesday alleged that the party’s MLAs, who failed to turn up at Rajya Sabha polls, had “acted under pressure from the NDA”,
However, at least two of the three absentee MLAs refuted the charge and claimed that Ram had advised them to “act as per conscience” and, hence, they refrained from voting for the RJD candidate who was not to their liking.
