Chandigarh, March 18 The Haryana Assembly witnessed chaos for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as treasury and opposition benches traded barbs over the Rajya Sabha elections.
After the main opposition Congress leveled allegations of "horse-trading" against the BJP, the ruling party launched a strong counter-offensive, asking whether a person did not have the right to contest as an Independent.
The Congress had accused the BJP of "vote-buying" in the Rajya Sabha polls on Tuesday.
BJP's Sanjay Bhatia and Karamvir Singh Boudh of the Congress were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana after polls for the two seats on Monday. It was a narrow win for Boudh over Independent candidate Satish Nandal (63), as cross-voting dented the otherwise comfortable position of the Congress for securing an easy victory.
Speaking in the Assembly on Wednesday after Independent MLA Devender Kadyan clarified that it was three independent legislators who had proposed Nandal's candidature for the Rajya Sabha polls, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini launched a scathing attack on the Congress.
Saini said that a senior Congress member, Raghuvir Singh Kadian, had asked, "What was the need for a third candidate (Independent Satish Nandal)?"
"Sanjay Bhatia was our only candidate. He (Nandal) entered the contest as an Independent," he said.
Saini then blamed the Congress for "murdering democracy".
Referring to Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal leveling allegations of "horse-trading", Saini said that, according to practice, Congress MLAs showed their ballots cast in the Rajya Sabha polls to their authorized polling agents, yet the party was blaming the BJP government.
"He (Nandal) was not our candidate; he was an Independent. In democracy, everyone has the right to contest," the CM said.
Minister Mahipal Dhanda, while referring to five Congress MLAs cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, asked, "If the Congress party accepts that their legislators are 'bikau' (for sale), then what?"
As Congress members created a din, Saini hit back at them, telling, "Don't speak too loudly; we also know how to speak loudly."
Speaking about Independent candidate Nandal, Saini said, "We did not field the Independent candidate. But he was free to seek votes from everyone."
"The Independent candidate approached us for support and also sought votes from the Congress. Ultimately, those who chose to back him did so in accordance with their conscience. There should be no objection to that. The attempts to cast aspersions on the process were unwarranted," he said.
Independent MLA Devender Kadyan, who is one of the three MLAs supporting the Saini government, hit out at the Congress over allegations that democracy was murdered in the Rajya Sabha polls.
As the Speaker allowed him to keep his point brief, Kadyan said he has been elected to the Assembly as an Independent MLA, and that is the beauty of democracy, but they (Congress) cannot tolerate this.
Minister Dhanda said that the Congress has made allegations that democracy has been murdered.
Dhanda said that he wants to remind the Congress when Bhupinder Singh Hooda fell short of achieving a majority of his government in 2009, a split was forced in the then Haryana Janhit Congress to gain a majority and form his government for the second term.
"Was that not a murder of democracy?" Dhanda asked.
"The Congress's members and polling agents are seeing the vote in the Rajya Sabha election and yet they are calling us 'chor' (thief)," Dhanda said.
"If you feel your MLAs have done something wrong, then you should take action rather than blaming the BJP (government)," he said, lashing out at the Congress.
In the Assembly on Tuesday, senior Congress member Raghuvir Singh Kadian trained guns at the BJP, questioning its intentions for making its own state vice president Satish Nandal enter the Rajya Sabha contest despite knowing that the Congress had the required strength to win the second seat and that the Independent candidate could not win.
Alleging the murder of democracy, Kadian had said that when there was no way an Independent could win, the BJP still made Nandal enter the contest, which casts doubt on their intentions.