Chandigarh, March 17 The Haryana Assembly witnessed chaotic scenes on Tuesday after the main opposition party, the Congress, attempted to raise the issue regarding the Rajya Sabha elections, alleging the "murder of democracy."
During the uproar, the House saw frequent disruptions, a brief adjournment, the Speaker naming eight Congress MLAs, and later, the opposition party members walking out.
BJP's Sanjay Bhatia (58) and Karamvir Singh Boudh (61) of the Congress were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana after the counting for the keenly-watched twin seats went past midnight following allegations of violation of vote secrecy by both sides.
It was a narrow win for Boudh over Independent candidate Satish Nandal (63), as cross-voting by five Congress MLAs dented the otherwise comfortable position of the party for securing an easy victory. Four of the Congress's votes were also declared invalid during counting.
In the Haryana Assembly on Tuesday, after the Question Hour was over, senior Congress member Raghuvir Singh Kadian targeted the BJP, questioning its intentions for making its own leader Satish Nandal enter the Rajya Sabha contest from Haryana despite knowing that Congress had the required numerical strength to win the second seat, and the Independent could not win.
Alleging the murder of democracy, Kadian said that when there was no way an Independent could win, the BJP still made Nandal enter the contest, which casts doubt on their intention. "What was the need of bringing in a third candidate," he asked.
Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda said that he had maintained from the beginning that in the contest for two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana, both BJP and Congress had the numerical strength to bag one seat each.
"I was surprised when the BJP made their party leader enter the fray as an Independent. Everyone saw that in the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls, how they indulged in 'vote chori'.
"Again, the script of 'vote chori' was written on the day when the BJP made their own leader file nomination as an Independent. We wanted the government to give clarification on this in the House.
Notably, the BJP has maintained that anyone was free to contest the polls, and the party's candidate was Sanjay Bhatia, while Nandal had entered the contest as an Independent.