WEB DESK
A delegation of the BJP met with the Election Commission of India today regarding the Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. BJP delegation comprising Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Dr. Jitendra Singh and Arjun Ram Meghwal met with Election Commission. After the meeting, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, BJP has submitted complaints in specific states as well and asked that this election be declared null and void on basis of broken rules of secrecy in voting.
In a tweet, Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, the dignity of secrecy has been broken in Maharashtra and Haryana during the process of the Rajya Sabha’s election. He said, this is a game of Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi, which disturbs the sanctity of democracy.
The polling was conducted for 16 seats in Rajya Sabha, spanning the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana. Polling started at 9 am this morning in six seats in Maharashtra, four each in Rajasthan and Karnataka along with two seats in Haryana.
In Haryana, the Election Commission has kept on hold the result of the Rajyasabha seats from Haryana amid allegations of violation of rules by two congress MLAs. Both parties BJP and Congress have approached Election Commission. BJP is demanding the cancellation of votes of MLA Kiran Choudhary and Bharat Bhushan Batra for openly displaying their ballot papers. The Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma backed by BJP and Jannayak Janta Party in his complaint said that both Congress MLAs have shown their ballot papers first to their party agent and than other agents. He said that he immediately objected and also gave in writing to the Returning Officer R K Nandal but he has not taken any action. He alleged that the Returning Officer was favoring Congress candidate.
The 89 MLAs in the 90-member assembly polled their votes but the independent MLA from Meham Balraj Singh Kundu decided not to vote. The BJP had fielded Krishan Panwar and extended support to independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma who also has the backing of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), an ally of the BJP. Ajay Maken is the Congress nominee for the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana.
Counting of votes for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra is yet, to begin with the BJP approaching the Election Commission of India against three MLAs of the ruling alliance.
A BJP delegation, including Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jitendra Singh and Arjun Ram Meghwal met the Election Commissioner seeking a probe into their complaint. The BJP has alleged that NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad, Congress MLA Yashomati Thakur and Sena legislator Suhas Kande violated the model code for voting. It has been claimed that Mr. Kande showed the ballot paper to his agent in such a way that two agents of different parties could see it while the remaining two-handed over the ballot paper to their agents which is also against the rule.
Urging the commission to cancel their votes, the BJP has cited the 2017 Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat involving Congress leader Ahmed Patel. It states that the very act of showing the ballot paper to anyone other than the election agent of one’s party renders the vote invalid.
Counting cannot start until the ECI gives its decision and final go-ahead. The decision is important as the winning quota cannot be decided until the total number of valid votes is known.