Rajya Sabha polls: Nine Congress MLAs cross-vote in Himachal Pradesh

Shimla: As the polling for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh ended on Tuesday, Hindi news channel Aaj Tak claimed that nine Congress MLAs cross-voted.

Quoting sources, the channel claimed that the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government has landed in trouble after this cross-voting.

Congress has 40 MLAs in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly while BJP has 25 members. Three members are independent.

With nine Congress MLAs cross-voting in support of BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate Harsh Mahajan, a former minister and three-time Congress MLA, Congress' candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi is set to lose the Rajya Sabha election.

On the other hand, Mahajan will win the election with more than 34 votes, including independents, if any.

The polling was brisk and all 68 members have voted. Independent MLA from Hamipur Ashish was the first to cast his vote.

For voting, Congress MLA Babloo was brought to the Assembly in a helicopter as he was unwell.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu after casting his vote said the MLAs have voted as per the ideology of the party.

"We have 40 MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha and unless MLAs are bought off, we will get all the votes," he said.

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur had earlier said that it was the democratic right of the MLAs to vote and it was not necessary that the candidate be elected unopposed.

"We have fielded the candidate gauging the situation and hope that all MLAs would exercise their conscious vote," he added.

The Congress had issued a whip to its MLAs to vote for Singhvi following which the BJP had accused the ruling Congress of issuing whip to their members to pressurise them and maintained that the MLAs have been elected democratically and have the right to vote as per their wish.

The BJP candidate has sent a complaint to the chief election commissioner drawing his attention to the three line whip issued by the Congress to vote for the party candidate.

In his complaint, Mahajan said that such a whip is not only unethical but also against the conducting of elections to the Rajya Sabha as it will affect the decision making ability of the MLAs.