RAIPUR: Congress legislators from Haryana were shifted to the Chhattisgarh capital on Thursday evening amid apprehensions of cross voting in the June 10 biennial elections in that state.
Twenty-eight legislators, accompanied by a couple of party office bearers, landed at Swami Vivekananda Airport in the evening and were taken to a resort in Naya Raipur. The Congress has 31 MLAs in the Haryana assembly, and it seems three of them were not part of the group that arrived.
Elections are scheduled for two RS seats in Haryana, where there are 90 members in the assembly. Congress has fielded Ajay Maken. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had a meeting with these legislators in Delhi before they flew to Raipur.
The development comes after Karthikeya Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, filed his nomination as an independent candidate for Rajya Sabha from Haryana. He is backed by Haryana JJP’s 10 MLAs and is also likely to gain support of BJP as well as several independents.
BJP has 40 MLAs in the Haryana assembly. There are seven Independents and one each from Haryana Lokhit Party (Gopal Kanda) and INLD (Abhay Chautala). Though 31 votes are required to win a Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana, Congress is worried that the last-minute bid by Kartikeya Sharma could trigger horse trading and cross voting, affecting Maken’s chances.
Chhattisgarh agriculture minister Ravindra Choubey said, “There is no threat as such but we are just being alert. There have been instances of BJP forming the government in places where Congress had majority, hence we are alert.”
Leader of the opposition in Chhattisgarh assembly, Dharamlal Kaushik, took a dig at Congress, saying: “Congress morale is down and the party is not sure whether its legislators will vote for the party candidate.”
