Congress’s Ajay Maken lost to BJP-JJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma with a margin of barely 2/3rd of a vote
Kuldeep Bishnoi, the Congress party’s Haryana MLA, was expelled from all of his current party positions on Saturday for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections, which ended on Friday.
According to the Haryana Congress, Bishnoi, an MLA from Hisar’s Adampur constituency, did not vote for the Congress candidate
Ajay Maken and instead crossed-voted for BJP-JJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, who eventually defeated Maken.
Aside from Bishnoi, another MLA, Kiran Choudhry, had “wrongly cast her ballot,” according to Congress sources.
In the final calculation of votes polled, it appeared that Maken lost to Sharma with a margin of barely 2/3rd of a vote (0.66 lesser vote than Sharma).
“The Congress president has expelled Kuldeep Bishnoi from all his present party positions, including the post of special invitee of the Congress Working Committee, with immediate effect,” AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said in a statement.
Bishnoi did not attend any of the party’s legislators’ pre-election meetings and stated that he voted according to his conscience. Following the announcement of the results, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar stated that, while one Congress vote was rejected,
Kuldeep Bishnoi (Congress MLA from Adampur) “voted according to his inner conscience” and “did not vote for Congress nominee Ajay Maken.”
Congress MLA showed faith in BJP: Khattar
“All the party MLAs cast their votes by showing it to their election agent. I am sure Kuldeep Bishnoi also must have done that.
Yet, it is welcome that he supported our candidate and voted listening to his inner conscience. He has shown faith in the principles and policies of the BJP.
He did not even think what his party is going to do with him after this, but he cast his vote after listening to his heart and mind. We welcome him,” Khattar said on Bishnoi.
“It is for the party to tell us all,” Khattar said of the Congress’s rejected vote. I’m not sure who’s vote was rejected.”
The Haryana Assembly is made up of 90 members. The ruling camp received 58 votes, which included the BJP’s 40 MLAs, the JJP’s 10, one each from the Haryana Lokhit Party and the INLD, and six Independent MLAs.
The Congress originally accounted for 31 votes, one of which was cancelled and one was used for cross-voting for the ruling camp, bringing the total to 59 for the latter.
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