BJP bags 10 seats out of 15; Cong loses in Himachal, gets 3 in K’taka

Amid elements of suspense, drama, thrill and cross-voting, the ruling BJP bagged 10 out of 15 Rajya Sabha seats that went to polls on Tuesday across Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. The Lotus party came up with a surprise and clinched two extra seats by bagging the lone seat in Himachal Pradesh and one more in UP, largely helped by cross-voting to exceed its expected victory on seven seats out of 10.

The Rajya Sabha election for the lone seat in Himachal Pradesh turned out to be a thriller as the BJP pulled off an unseemingly impossible win for its candidate Harsh Mahajan who defeated senior Supreme Court advocate and his Congress opponent Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

In the most populous state of UP, the BJP snatched an extra seat as it got some help from Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and rebels of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP). The opposition INDIA bloc suffered a setback in Tuesday’s Rajya Sabha elections as it was expecting two more seats in the current round of polls. The SP won two out of three Rajya Sabha seats which it contested in UP.

In an embarrassment for the ruling Congress and state Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu, the elections to the Upper House of Parliament spelt disaster for the party as he admitted to nine cross-votings by MLAs of which three were Independents. At this stage, the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh stares at an emboldened BJP attacking it by bringing in a no-confidence motion. The Congress is in power in two other states — Telangana and Karnataka.

The chief minister alleged that six Congress MLAs had been “abducted’’ by the BJP with security cover of CRPF and Haryana Police, whisking them away to Panchkula in Haryana. Congress has 40 MLAs in the House of 68 and also enjoys support of three Independent MLAs while the BJP has 25 MLAs.

Talking to mediapersons in Shimla late Tuesday evening, CM Sukhu blamed the legislators for selling out their honesty. He said: “Nine cross votings took place, three of them were Independent MLAs but six others sold their honesty and voted against Abhishek Manu Singhvi.’’’

Flanked by the chief minister, Abhishek Manu Singhvi extended his congratulations to Harsh Mahajan for the victory but told the BJP to introspect. “I would like to tell his party – introspect and think. When a 25-member party fields a candidate against a 43-member party, there is just one message –we will shamelessly do that which is not permitted by the law,’’ he said after the nail-biting finish.

In the southern state of Karnataka, the ruling Congress won three seats and the BJP one in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting.

Those who were elected to the Upper House are Ajay Maken, G C Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain, all belonging to the Congress, and Narayansa K Bhandage of the BJP.

Five candidates were in the fray for the four seats in the elections, including JD(S) contestant D Kupendra Reddy. One of the BJP MLAs, S T Somashekar, voted for the Congress candidate Ajay Maken, the other, A Shivaram Hebbar, abstained.

Voting took place for 15 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka on Tuesday. Out of the 56 Rajya Sabha seats contested, 41 members have already secured their positions in the Upper House without having to face opposition.

Among those elected unopposed are former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda, Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan and Ashok Chavan who recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP in Maharashtra. Rajya Sabha members have a six-year term, with elections held every two years for 33 per cent of the seats. At present, the Upper House has 245 members. In UP, a high-octane electoral battle for the 10 vacant seats resulted in the BJP bagging an extra seat as it had the numbers to win seven unopposed and the Samajwadi Party (SP) could win three. The BJP forced an election in UP as it fielded an 8th candidate for the 10 seats.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya expressed optimism, stating, “This victory is just a trailer. The picture will come in May 2024 with a resounding victory of BJP in Lok Sabha elections.”

Initially, with the ruling party having the numerical strength to secure only seven seats and the opposition alliance led by SP eyeing three, the dynamics of the election underwent a dramatic shift with the entry of Sanjay Seth and the RLD.

The entry of Seth, a businessman-turned-politician who switched allegiance from the SP to the BJP in 2019, added a new dimension to the electoral contest, altering the equilibrium. Tensions escalated as certain leaders from the SP, notably former chief whip Manoj Pandey, openly aligned themselves with the BJP.

Among the seven MLAs from the Samajwadi Party who engaged in cross-voting were Rakesh Pandey, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Abhay Singh, Vinod Chaturvedi, Manoj Pandey, Pooja Pal, and Ashutosh Maurya. Allegations arose that five of these leaders even met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Further complicating the scenario, two MLAs from the Jansatta Loktantrik party and the sole representative of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also cast their votes in favour of the NDA candidate, bolstering BJP’s path to victory.

The BJP’s electoral lineup featured RPN Singh, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangeeta Balwant, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sadhna Singh, Naveen Jain, and Sanjay Seth, while the Samajwadi Party fielded Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman, and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan as their contenders. The former bureaucrat Alok Ranjan lost the election. Akhilesh Yadav, in response, described the nomination of the third candidate as a “loyalty test,” emphasizing its significance in discerning allies from dissenters.

Meanwhile, protests erupted among workers of the Samajwadi Party in Lucknow following reports of cross-voting by several MLAs. Demonstrators were held to express their outrage, burning effigies of the implicated leaders and staging road blockades to amplify their dissent against what they perceived as betrayal. Police intervention was required to disperse the agitated crowd, though the fervour of the protest remained undiminished.