Chandigarh, March 17 – BJP's Sanjay Bhatia and Karamvir Singh Boudh 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, officials said on Tuesday.
Boudh secured a narrow victory over Independent candidate Satish Nandal (63), as cross-voting dented the otherwise comfortable position of the Congress for securing an easy victory.
Bhatia (58), a former Lok Sabha MP from Karnal, is a prominent figure in the BJP, while Boudh (61) is a retired Haryana government employee and a prominent Dalit activist, currently serving as the coordinator of the National Scheduled Castes Department of the Congress.
The two legislators of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) abstained from voting, reducing the number of valid votes to 88 in the 90-member Haryana Assembly at the beginning of polling.
Five votes were later declared invalid – four of the Congress and one of the BJP, the officials said.
INLD leaders Abhay Singh Chautala and Aditya Devi Lal said the party decided to abstain keeping people's sentiments in view.
After both the Congress and the BJP approached the Election Commission alleging violation of vote secrecy, the poll panel declared Congress MLA Paramvir Singh's vote as invalid.
Bhatia won the first seat comfortably, polling 39 first-preference votes.
In the fight for the second seat, Boudh polled 28 votes, while Independent candidate Nandal got 16.
According to the formula devised for Rajya Sabha polls, the quota required to win one seat was 2,767 (vote value), and both Bhatia and Boudh crossed that limit, leaving no room for any further transfer of votes.
However, with five Congress MLAs allegedly cross-voting, Nandal could have secured Bhatia's 11 second preference votes, reaching 28, had one more Congress legislator cross-voted in favour of the Independent candidate, sources said.
Taking strict note of the matter, Congress general secretary in charge of Haryana, B K Hariprasad, told