Congress, INLD seek probe of Rajya Sabha cross-voting

While the Congress is planning to seek an explanation from party legislators in Uttar Pradesh for cross voting in the just held Rajya Sabha election, it is refusing to blame former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other MLAs in Haryana whose votes were declared invalid in the election.

The issue is not dying down as the Congress and the INLD made the ruling BJP its main target, and are prepared to fight the battle in court and outside while seeing that this was not cross voting but a criminal game played by those who have vested interests.

The Congress demanded a CBI probe and filing of an FIR against the BJP and the BJP supported candidate (Subhash Chandra) and said it was the duty of the Election Commission to ensure a free and fair election.

“Those whose votes were invalidated, as the EC records prove, belong not to one faction but to the Congress in all. I will not take names. Some of the staunch supporters of Hooda, their votes were found valid. All this must come out through a probe and we also demand that an FIR must be registered for this criminal conspiracy against the BJP-supported candidate. It is a criminal act. The EC must ensure that an FIR is registered and the election is countermanded. Let the truth come out,” senior AICC spokes-person Anand Sharma told reporters. Responding to a volley of questions Mr Sharma asked, “How can you condemn anyone on the basis of unsubstantiated political speculation It would be unfair. The Congress has its own institutional mechanism where these issues are looked into and I am sure that the party has done this. That process, which the party always undertakes, was taken serious notice of and immediately will be looked into and that is why the Congress has succeeded on Sunday in getting details to unearth the criminal conspiracy.”

He also said voters don’t take their colour or pens. Even mobile phones are left outside. Anybody familiar with election to the Rajya Sabha and the guidelines of the Supreme Court makes it abundantly clear — you go into the polling booth and a pen is tied there with a small string, you tick and leave it.

“Now, our allegation is very clear that if you look at the pattern of voting, the first vote was of the CLP Leader which was valid. The second vote, which you referred to, was Randeep Surjewala’s, we have challenged the invalidation. We have to accept his statement that he did not show it. He happened to be voting at the same time,” he said.

In Chandigarh, the Haryana Vidhan Sabha secretary and returning officer for the recently-held Rajya Sabha polls for the two seats in the state, on Monday said a sketch pen had been provided to the legislators to mark their votes and the entire process was videographed.

Returning officer R.K. Nandal said the results were declared late in the night on Saturday after due permission from the EC.

Notably, the Congress on Monday approached the EC in New Delhi to demand countermanding of the election to both Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, alleging a “conspiracy” by BJP-RSS that led to the defeat of a candidate, backed by the party and the main Opposition INLD, under controversial circumstances.

The INLD also shot off a letter to the chief election commissioner during the day, saying the party is convinced that the matter calls for a thorough inquiry.