Congress party has expelled its Haryana MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi from all posts with immediate effect for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state. Bishnoi has been removed from all positions from the party including the post of Special Invitee of the Congress Working Committee. It is notable that senior Congress leader Ajay Maken who had contested the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana lost the election because of the cross-voting by Congress MLAs.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal signed and published a press release on 11th June 2022 that said, “Hon’ble Congress President has expelled Shri Kuldeep Bishnoi from all his party positions including the post of Special Invitee of the Congress Working Committee, with immediate effect.”
Congress expels party MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi from all his present party positions, with immediate effect.
— ANI (@ANI) June 11, 2022
Bishnoi had earlier cross-voted in Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana. pic.twitter.com/tjPdWyXAEi
After Ajay Maken lost the election, Kuldeep Bishnoi tweeted, “I know how to crush the hood. One should not leave the jungle fearing the snakes.”
“फन कुचलने का हुनर आता है मुझे,
— Kuldeep Bishnoi (@bishnoikuldeep) June 11, 2022
सांप के ख़ौफ़ से जंगल नही छोड़ा करते।” सुप्रभात 🙏💪🏼
Congress had appointed Udaybhan as the Haryana State Congress President in April 2022. Since then, Kuldeep Bishnoi was angry and did not attend any congress event. He had said that he will take his next political decision only after meeting Rahul Gandhi. Everyone including Congress leader Ajay Maken and the state in-charge Vivek Bansal insisted that he should participate in party activities but things did not work out.
Ajay Maken’s defeat in the Haryana Rajya Sabha election
In a setback to the Congress in Haryana, BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar and party-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma won two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana. Congress had fielded veteran leader Ajay Maken from the state but he had to face the defeat. The voting for the seats took place on 10th June 2022 and the election commission declared the results late in the night. It was alleged that the pole rules were violated while voting and therefore the counting of votes started after a delay of more than seven hours. The results were announced at around two in the night.
In fact, 89 out of the total 90 members of the Haryana Assembly voted for the two Rajya Sabha seats on Friday. But when the counting of votes started after answering all the complaints, the final result was declared on the basis of the 88 votes as one vote was rejected. BJP candidate Krishan Lal Panwar got 36 votes, BJP-JJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma got 23 votes and Ajay Maken of the Congress got 29 votes. Still, Ajay Maken was defeated. The answer to the question of how lies in the preferential voting system.
After one congress vote was rejected, 88 votes were left. 88 votes divided by the total number of candidates (3) is 29.34. So 29.34 was the ‘magic figure’ in this election and BJP candidate Krishan Lal Panwar got 36 votes which is 6.66 more than the magic figure. Haryana NDA-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma got 23 first preference votes. However, he got second preference votes from all the 36 MLAs who had marked Panwar as first preference. On the other hand, the Congress MLAs didn’t mark any second preference and Ajay Maken was only their preference. And due to this preferential voting, Sharma got the extra 6.66 first preference votes from Panwar. So the total number of votes for Kartikeya Sharma surged to 29.66. Ajay Maken got 29 votes. He lost the election by a fractional margin of 0.66.
Notably, Congress has 31 MLAs in the house, but one their vote was cancelled, and one MLA Bishnoi cross voted in favour of BJP.
The BJP won eight of the 16 Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs in four states, namely Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Karnataka, thus bolstering its stronghold in the Upper House of the Parliament. With five seats, Congress emerged second. MVA alliance members Shiv Sena and NCP, as well as a BJP-backed Independent candidate from Haryana, bagged the remaining seats.
