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Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu on Tuesday exuded confidence of Congresss victory in the Rajya Sabha election in the state, saying the party has 40 MLAs and if no MLA defects, the party will get all these votes.
" We have 40 MLAs. Agar koi bika nahi hoga toh humein 40/40 votes aayenge. (If no one is sold, we will get 40/40 votes)," Sukhu told reporters. The voting started at 9 am and vote counting will begin at 5 pm today. The election is being held in Himachal Pradesh for the sole Rajya Sabha seat and the contest is between Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and BJP's Harsh Mahajan. On Monday, the BJP nominee complained to the Chief Election Commissioner that the Congress has issued a three-line whip to its MLAs for the polls, "which was unethical". "Such a whip is not only unethical but also against the conduct of elections to the Rajya Sabha as it will affect the decision making ability of the MLAs," Harsh Mahajan said in his complaint. Himachal Pradesh Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan alleged that the BJP is planning "horse trading". "This is BJP's frustration because the number of MLAs is not in favour of the BJP. Forty MLAs are with Congress, and three are independent. The BJP only has 25 MLAs. ...even without numbers, BJP is fielding their candidate, which means they're planning horse trading..." Chauhan said. Former HP CM and BJP leader Jairam Thakur said they were expecting their candidate to win. "Our candidate for Rajya Sabha elections is Harsh Mahajan. I want all MLAs to vote and we expect our candidate to win. The Election Commission has made everything clear regarding the whip. We should wait for the results," he said. (ANI)
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