Haryana RS polls: Krishan Lal Panwar, Ajay Maken and Kartikeya Sharma in the fray

CHANDIGARH: More than one third of Haryana’s MLAs cast their ballot by Friday afternoon to elect two Rajya Sabha members from the state. The assembly has 90 MLAs and the voting will conclude by 4 pm. BJP candidate Krishan Lal Panwar, Congress nominee Ajay Maken and BJP-JJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma are in the fray for the two Upper House seats.

Meanwhile, Independent MLA from Meham, Balraj Kundu, announced that he would abstain from voting. “I will neither vote for Kartikeya Sharma nor the Congress candidate,” he said.

Among those who had cast their votes included chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, deputy CM and revenue minister Dushyant Chautala, cabinet ministers JP Dalal, Anil Vij, Ranjit Chautala, Congress MLAs Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhary, lone INLD MLA Abhay Chautala, HLP MLA Gopal Kanda and several Independents. While BJP candidate Panwar is expected to sail through, the BJP-JJP one aims to upset the prospects of Maken, who on paper looks set to wrest the second seat.

The Congress, which herded its 28 MLAs to a lake resort in Chhattisgarh a week back to insulate them from being approached by the BJP-JJP-backed independent candidate, is also learnt to be in touch with a couple of Independents. Kundu’s decision to abstain could help the Congress’ prospects.

As per the formula for Rajya Sabha polls in the state, a candidate requires 31 votes to win. Since the BJP has 40 MLAs, Panwar is likely to win.

Maken should also win comfortably if all 31 Congress MLAs vote in his favour.

The BJP-JJP coalition has 19 second preference votes and expects at least six Independents to vote for Kartikeya Sharma. Chautala and Kanda have also extended their support for Sharma. However, Sharma cannot win unless a few Congress MLAs switch sides or their votes are declared invalid.

While there is no official confirmation, Randhir Gollen, an Independent MLA supporting Sharma, told HT that one vote of the Congress has already been declared invalid. The Congress camp though denied the claims, saying that Gollen was trying to create confusion by spreading such rumours.