Rajya Sabha Congress candidate Abhishek Singhvi lost the election for the only Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh to Harsh Mahajan of the BJP. Mahajan won the poll on the basis of a draw of lots after a tie between the two candidates.
Mallikarjun Kharge, President of Congress, said that they would challenge the election as both the candidates received 34 votes each. Meanwhile, CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has alleged that 5-6 Congress MLAs have been taken to Haryana along with a state police and CRPF’s convoy.
Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said that it was not necessary that the candidate be elected unopposed and it was the democratic right of the MLAs to vote.
Thakur said, “We have fielded the candidate gauging the situation and hope that all MLAs would exercise their conscious vote."
All the 68 members have voted for the lone Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha seat. The voting began at 9 am on Tuesday as independent MLA from Hamipur Ashish was the first to cast his vote and and it ended with the vote from Congress MLA from Chintpurni Sudershan Babloo.
In the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Congress has a clear majority with 40 out of the 68 MLAs along with a support of three independent MLAs. On the other hand, BJP has 25 MLAs in the assembly.
The losing candidate Mahajan criticised that such a whip is not only unethical but also against conducting elections to the Rajya Sabha will affect the decision making ability of the MLAs, as per PTI.
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