In an unprecedented move, the Congress has asked all its MLAs in Haryana to submit signed affidavits on who — and how — they voted for in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. R.K. Anand, an Independent candidate supported by the Congress, lost to the BJP-backed media baron Subhash Chandra in the elections.
The Congress’s move could embarrass the former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the party’s central communication chief, Randeep Surjewala, both of whose votes were rejected not because they used the pen with the wrong-coloured ink but for reasons that could be considered a violation of the party whip.
Of course, ostensibly, the Congress leadership’s decision has been taken to establish that the 17 Congress MLAs had obeyed the party whip and in fact voted for Mr. Anand; so this can then be used if the party challenges Mr. Chandra’s election in court.
Already, Mr. Anand has video evidence on the polling that he has secured from the Election Commission. One case is pending with the commission, but it has limited powers to invalidate declared poll results; additionally, a first information report will be lodged against Mr. Chandra by Mr. Anand allegedly for “managing” the election in such a way that the votes of 14 of 17 Congress MLAs were declared invalid.
For one, 12 of the 14 MLAs, whose votes were declared invalid, had indeed voted for Mr. Anand and had shown their ballot papers to the party agent, general secretary B.K. Hariprasad.
Their votes were rejected because they had used a pen that had the wrong coloured ink. Their defence is that the pen they had used was the one provided in the voting booth.
But all this is more likely to open up a can of worms for the Congress as well, as Mr. Hooda is believed to have submitted a blank ballot in protest against being asked to back a candidate supported by archrival, the Indian National Lok Dal, while Mr. Surjewala’s vote was rejected as he had “shown” it to CLP leader Kiran Choudhury, a charge that he has since denied.
A senior Congress leader said, “The impact of this decision will be seen at two levels — on what is likely to be a long-drawn-out court battle, but if Hooda and Randeep declare on affidavit what they did, the party will be forced to take cognisance. That could be messy.”
In fact, some people in the party feel that since Mr. Anand is not a Congress member, it should not get embroiled in a court battle. On the other hand, if it wanted to act against those who defied the whip, these sources said, it should have issued a show-cause notice soon after the polling.
