Haryana Congress MLAs on Thursday, 9 June, arrived in Delhi from Raipur, ahead of Friday's Rajya Sabha elections.
"In continuation of the Chintan Shivir in Udaipur (Rajasthan), Chintan Shivir-training session was held in Raipur (Chhattisgarh). As far as Rajya Sabha elections are concerned, we will send our candidate to the Parliament with more votes than our total strength," Deepender Hooda was quoted as saying by ANI.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP-JJP MLA remained lodged at a resort at Chandigarh for a second consecutive day on Thursday.
Kartikeya Sharma Joins Enters the Fray
Lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Singh Chautala declared his support for Kartikeya Sharma in a late evening development. Sharma entered the contest as an independent candidate with support from the BJP-JJP combine, Gopal Kanda, lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party and most independents.
The BJP has fielded former Minister Krishan Lal Panwar while Ajay Maken is the Congress nominee.
The Congress, fearing poaching of its legislators, shifted its MLAs to Raipur a week ago. News agency PTI reported that the MLAs left the resort in Raipur on the evening of Thursday, 9 June.
Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda was in Delhi over the past a few days and reached here on Thursday evening. It is learnt that both Hooda and party leader Kuldeep Bishnoi reached here in the same flight from Delhi.
Kuldeep Bishnoi, an MLA from Adampur in Hisar, did not go to Raipur after reports of him being displeased with the party for ignoring him in the recent state unit reshuffle.
Bishnoi lobbied for the post of state unit chief, but the post eventually went to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan. Another senior leader, Kiran Choudhary, too, did not go to Raipur reportedly due to health reasons.
Speaking to PTI on Wednesday, 8 June, Hooda said, "we have got sufficient numbers and our candidate will win comfortably with 31 votes."
Voting Process Training Session for BJP-JJP
The BJP-JJP shifted their MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh, who are attending a "training session" in connection to the voting process, said Haryana BJP chief OP Dhankar. They were joined by Chief Minister Maohar Lal Khattar and Dhankar himself.
While the BJP with 40 MLAs has sufficient votes to win one seat, the entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma has further spiced up the contest for the second seat.
Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Singh Chautala also declared support for Sharma after a meeting of his party. Chautala said there is no question of supporting the Congress, "which has looted the country".
"For me, there is also no question of voting for the BJP candidate as the party pursued anti-farmer policies," he said.
He added that an abstention from voting would benefit Congress candidates in the fray, which he "can never do."
The INLD leader also lashed out at Hooda, saying he can go to "any extent to serve his political interests".
‘Both Outfits Don’t Have Faith in Their MLAs’: Balraj Kundu
Independent MLA Balraj Kundu was approached by former Union Minister in Hooda-led government and Sharma’s father, Venod Sharma, on Thursday, 9 June, who sought support for his son. Kundu told reporters that he will reveal his strategy on Friday, reported New Indian Express.
Meanwhile, he took a dig at BJP for slamming Congress for lodging their MLAs in a resort but now they too have done the same thing over fears of poaching.
He said, "One thing is clear from this that neither outfits have faith in their MLAs and they fear cross-voting."
Haryana Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer for the polls RK Nandal said on Thursday that polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm. The votes will be counted soon thereafter.
Nandal added that each MLA will mark his vote with a special pen provided by the Election Commission which is to be handed over after voting to the officer deputed by the poll body, as per New Indian Express.
The JJP, which is an ally of the BJP, has 10 legislators while the INLD and Haryana Lokhit Party have one each. There are seven independents contesting the polls.
Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana will fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring.
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