Uddhav Joins Maharashtra In Rajya Sabha Polls, BJP Wins In Haryana Too

Though the Ashok Gahlaut-Sachin pilot duo won in Rajasthan, the Congress and its allies pushed the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls in the other three states. Shiv Sena candidate defeats Karnataka in Congress-JD (S) polls In Haryana, the BJP-backed non-aligned Ajay Maken lost to the Congress on the occasion of infighting. In Maharashtra, the BJP has won three of the six seats, beating the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance.

Counting in Maharashtra and Haryana was suspended till late Friday night due to differences between the BJP and the opposition. In parliamentary arithmetic, the victory of Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena, Praful Patel of NCP and Imran Pratapgari of Congress was assured in Maharashtra. BJP’s Piyush Gayal and Anil Bond were also required to win. BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik defeated Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Powar in the sixth seat.

Though Shiv Sena demanded cancellation of votes of two BJP MLAs for allegedly violating the rules, the commission rejected it. Apart from that, the BJP has the advantage of not being able to vote for two NCP MLAs Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh who were arrested by the central government. Political circles feel that the defeat of Shiv Sena candidate in Rajya Sabha polls is a big blow to Chief Minister Uddhav.

In Haryana, however, the Election Commission rejected the vote of a Congress MLA for allegedly violating the BJP’s demands. Besides, Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishanai cross-voted. As a result, BJP’s Kishenlal Panwar as well as BJP-backed independent Kartikeya Sharma have also won. Ajay Maken has lost in the Congress. Haryana needs at least 31 votes to win the parliamentary arithmetic. The main opposition Congress has 31 MLAs. The BJP has fielded Manu Sharma’s brother Kartikeya, convicted in the murder case of model Jessica Lal, for trying to break the Congress’ house.

According to sources, Kuldeep, son of late former chief minister Bhajan Lal, was vying for the post of Haryana state Congress president. But recently, former chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda’s successor Udayvan was given the presidency. That is why the angry Kuldeep retaliated. Incidentally, Kuldeep left the Congress in 2011 to form a new party due to differences with Hooda. But he returned to the team in 2016 on the initiative of Rahul Gandhi.