New Delhi: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP Vice President OP Mathur and two other party nominees were on Saturday elected to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in the elections in which Congress-backed independent candidate Kamal Morarka was defeated.
While Naidu and Mathur each got 42 votes, ruling BJP's other two candidates Harsh Vardhan, a member of erstwhile Dungarpur royal family, and Ramkumar Verma, a retired RBI official, secured 40 each.
Congress-supported Independent candidate and industrialist Kamal Morarka got 34 votes--24 of Congress, four of National People's Party, two of BSP and four Independents. One vote was declared invalid.
A candidate needed 40 votes to win in Rajasthan. Of the total 200 members of the Legislative Assembly, 199 voted in the polling held from 9 am to 4 pm.
BSP MLA B L Kushwah, who is in judicial custody in a murder case since October 2014, was not allowed by the Rajasthan High Court to cast his vote.
BJP has 160 MLAs followed by 24 of Congress, 4 of National People's Party, three of BSP, two of National Unionist Zamindara Party and seven Independents.
BJP was expecting the support of two legislators of National Unionist Zamindara Party and four independent MLAs and secure a combined tally of 166 votes for its four candidates but its figure stood at 164.
Congress suffered losses in Haryana through cross-voting by its 14 MLAs that led to the defeat of the party-backed Independent candidate RK Anand who was mainly fielded by its arch rival INLD. Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra won from Haryana on a independent ticket, backed by BJP.
Read: BJP MLA cross-votes in UP Rajya Sabha polls
Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar of BJP won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand.
BJP-backed Independent candidate for Rajya Sabha seat in Uttarakhand, Geeta Thakur, who retired from the contest on eve of the polls resigned from the party accusing it of suffering from an "anti-Dalit mindset".
Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against BJP-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra in Uttar Pradesh.
The results showed that BSP, which had backed Congress RS nominees in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, chose not to transfer its surplus votes to any other party candidate in UP.
Read: SP wins 7 Rajya Sabha seats in UP, BSP 2, BJP and Cong 1 each
Besides Sibal, the others who made it to the Rajya Sabha from the state are two recent returnees to SP-fold Amar Singh, Beni Prasad Verma, Kuwar Rewati Raman Singh, Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, Sukhram Singh Yadav, Sanjay Seth and Surendra Nagar (all SP), Satish Chandra Mishra and Ashok Sidharth (both BSP) and Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP).
Although Sibal got through, the 29-MLA Congress suffered a jolt with Sibal getting only 25 first preference votes despite 8-member RLD committing four votes each to Congress and SP.
BJP MLA Vijay Bahadur Yadav cross voted in favor of a Samajwadi Party candidate. "I voted on the basis of development done by the Chief Minister and I am ready to make any sacrifice," he said.
BJP candidates MJ Akbar and Anil Dave and Congress' Vivek Tankha were today elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, while an independent
candidate backed by BJP was defeated.
BJP's bid to spoil the Congress candidate's chances by fielding BJP leader Vinod Gotia as an independent candidate did not bear fruit. Gotia got 50 votes--48 surplus votes of BJP and two independents--against the required 58.
Senior journalist MJ Akbar and state BJP leader and strategist Dave polled 58 votes each, while Tankha secured 62 votes--57 from Congress, four from BSP and one independent, returning officer Bhagwandas Israni said.
BSP supremo Mayawati had issued a whip to its four MLAs to vote for Tankha.
Meanwhile, high drama was witnessed on Saturday when JMM MLA Chamra Linda was arrested in connection with an arrest warrant as voting in the Rajya Sabha elections to fill two seats from Jharkhand was on today, raising questions over police action.
Read: JMM MLA arrested hours before Rajya Sabha polls in Jharkhand
One of the two Congress MLAs, who also faced arrest in separate cases, however, voted in the election over which the party expressed relief.
Earlier, the Congress was planning to move the Supreme Court against possible arrest of its MLAs -- Nirmala Devi and Devendra Singh -- in what they saw was a bid to prevent them from voting in the election.
Union Minister Nirmala Seetharaman and Congress' Jairam Ramesh, Oscar Fernandes and KC Ramamurthy were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
In a loss of face, eight JD(S) MLAs, defying the party whip, on Saturday voted against its official candidate and supported Congress in the biennial elections to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka.
"8 MLA's have voted against JD-S in today's Rajya Sabha election in favour of Congress. Tomorrow in the party's meeting, we are going to take action against them according to provisions of the party constitution," JD-S spokesman Ramesh Babu said.
The rebel MLAs who cross-voted are Zameer Ahmed Khan, Chaluvaraya Swamy, Iqbal Ansari, Balakrishna, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda, Gopalaiah, Bheema Nayak and Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, Babu said, admitting the loss much before polls ended. Dissidence-hit JD(S) had fielded businessman BM Farooq as its candidate.
Calling rebels "cancer" for the party, JD-S leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said "we should have found medicine for it. It is already late. We will have to find a solution to it before it goes to final stage."
