A fresh political crisis is brewing in Himachal Pradesh where the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi suffered a stunning defeat in the Rajya Sabha election after several party MLAs cross-voted to the BJP candidate.
BJP’s Harsh Mahajan claimed the lone Rajya Sabha seat in the state even though the grand old party has 40 MLAs in the 68-member assembly and the support of the independents.
The contest was tied at 34-34 votes, after which Mahajan was declared the winner by draw of lots. According to reports, six Congress MLAs and three independents cross-voted to the BJP candidate.
The developments have rung an alarm bell for the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Rumours have it that the opposition BJP, which currently has 25 seats, is likely to bring a no-confidence motion against the government later this week.
Earlier in the day, as the counting of votes was underway, the chief minister made a startling allegation, saying that five to six Congress MLAs were “abducted” and whisked away by the CRPF and Haryana Police.
He also claimed that Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur was threatening the polling officers by coming to the counting hall time and again.
Later, addressing a press conference with Singhvi, Sukhu alleged that the Congress MLAs who had cross voted to the BJP candidate had “sold their honesty”.
The chief minister said those who had cross-voted were with them for dinner yesterday, and some of them for breakfast in the morning.
"I would also like to thank the nine persons (MLAs) because they have taught me a lot about human nature, its fickleness or its resoluteness. They supped with us... So, I think we are bad judges of human character; they are obviously better judges of human character," he said.
The election result has stirred up a political storm, with the Congress alleging that democracy would be "destroyed" if the BJP continues to bring down elected governments.
"If the (Central) government breaks an elected government, what democracy is it? It has happened earlier in Karnataka, Manipur, and Goa. When they do not get elected, they take measures, intimidate them, and break the government. Is this democracy?,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked.
