The Congress political house is in danger of collapsing. Allegedly, BJP leaders are carrying bags of money to buy MLAs. So before the Rajya Sabha vote, the Congress leadership decided to keep its MLAs locked in hotels to stop the BJP’s aggression. Another possible destination for Congress MLAs in Haryana is Raipur in Chhattisgarh, a Congress-ruled state. It is planned to keep the Congress MLAs from Rajasthan in a hotel in Udaipur, where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were present at the Chintan meeting a few days ago.
The BJP’s central leadership is desperate to keep the number of Congress seats in the Rajya Sabha as low as possible. In Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the BJP leadership is not willing to give up any additional seats to the Congress. Therefore, the responsibility of gathering the required number of Rajya Sabha elections in those four states has been handed over to 4 Union Ministers. In this journey, Rajya Sabha elections are going to be held on June 10 in 57 seats in 15 states of the country. Four of them will be in Rajasthan.
In that state, Congress has fielded three candidates and BJP two. The Congress candidates are Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari. Apart from BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari, the party has decided to support independent candidate Subhas Chandra.
The number of Congress MLAs in the 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly is 108. 71 are there of the BJP. To win a Rajya Sabha seat in that state, a candidate has to get the support of 41 people. As many as 26 additional votes have been cast since the two Congress candidates won. After winning, the first BJP candidate, there are 30 votes in hand. In the words of one BJP leader, “Congress needs 15 votes to win the third candidate. There we need 11 votes to win the second candidate. Naturally we run ahead.” The question is where the extra votes will come from?
According to the BJP leadership, the party is in touch with 13 independent MLAs in the state. In Haryana, too, Gajendra Shekhawat, the Union Minister in charge of the state, is active in giving ashes to the Congress. According to many in politics, the Congress is the ruling party in Rajasthan and is struggling to save the house, while in Haryana the Congress is the opposition. In the 90-seat Haryana Assembly, two seats are up for grabs this time. Congress has fielded Ajay Maken in Haryana. On the other hand, BJP candidates are Kishanlal Panwar and Kartikeya Sharma.
In order to win a candidate in Haryana, the support of 31 MLAs is required. The number of Congress MLAs in that state is 31 in only. Part of the legislators in the state were absent from party meetings, raising concerns in the Congress.
The Congress fears that the BJP has targeted those MLAs. On the other hand, after winning the first candidate, BJP has 10 votes in Haryana. It has already been reported that Ajay Chautala’s party will have the support of 10 JJP MLAs in favor of Kartikeya.