Kuldeep Bishnoi to be removed from CWC membership for cross-voting in RS polls: Sources

Amid the high-stakes drama over charges of polling rule violations that delayed the counting of votes for the Rajya Sabha elections by more than seven hours, Congress' Ajay Maken lost to BJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma in Haryana. Maken lost to Sharma over a narrow margin as his party's MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi voted for the BJP-backed independent candidate. Following this, Congress sources have now informed that Bishnoi is set to be removed from membership of the CWC and will be suspended from the party.

Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-voted which led to BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar and the saffron party-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma getting elected for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana. Dissatisfied by the action, the Congress party is now taking action against its leader. “Kuldeep Bishnoi, who cross-voted in Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, will be removed from membership of CWC (Special Invitee) and will be suspended from the party,” Congress sources told ANI.

According to ANI sources, a letter will also be written to the Speaker to get Bishnoi’s membership cancelled from the Assembly. Earlier, Congress had asked its MLAs to move to a private resort in Raipur, Chhattisgarh fearing cross-voting and horse-trading. However, Adampur MLA Bishnoi had not obliged by the directive.

Kuldeep Bishnoi broke Ajay Maken's RS dream

According to Returning Officer (RO) RK Nandal, Panwar got 36 votes, while Sharma got 23 first preference votes and 6.6 transferred from the BJP, taking his tally to 29.6. Maken who got 29 votes, lost on account of no second preference votes. While the value of votes polled by the BJP was 3,600, securing the first seat for Panwar, Sharma won the second seat with a vote value of 2,960, including 660 that got transferred from the BJP candidate as second preference votes. The Congress’ value of votes was 2,900 as the MLA from Adampur, Bishnoi voted in favour of BJP & JJP-backed independent candidate Sharma.

Speaking to reporters about the voting in the Rajya Sabha elections, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that Congress got 29 votes, while Kartikeya Sharma got 29.65 votes. Explaining Sharma's vote, he said that Sharma got 23 votes and Krishan Panwar’s 6.65 votes were transferred to him as well making him victorious. Reportedly, there was a divide in the Haryana Congress over Ajay Maken's candidature as many MLAs identified the senior Congress leader as an outsider and believe that candidates belonging from Haryana must be elected. 

(With inputs from ANI, Image: KuldeepBishnoi/Facebook)