New Delhi: Amid speculations of cross-voting in biennial elections for Rajya Sabha in Haryana, Congress leaders today said that Kuldeep Bishnoi is in constant touch with party leadership and he might be meeting Rahul Gandhi on Monday to discuss some issues which will be sorted. Kuldeep Bishnoi is said to be unhappy with party leadership as his name was not considered for the PCC chief post.
Bishnoi and Kiran Chaudhary are the two MLAs who did not join the group of MLAs and leaders camping in Raipur, Chhattisgarh before voting. After Bishnoi's dissatisfaction came out in open, news started making rounds that there is a faction among Congress MLAs who might choose to support Bishnoi by not voting for party candidate Ajay Maken. However, senior Congress leaders today said that they are confident of getting at least 34 to 35 votes and victory for Ajay Maken is assured as they only need 29 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat.
Out of the 90 assembly seats in Haryana, BJP and JJP have 40 and 10 MLAs each respectively followed by seven independents, one of the Haryana Lokhit party, and one from INLD. While Congress has 31 MLAs but three were suspected of cross-vote. However one more MLA, Chiranjeev Rao joined his colleagues in Raipur on Saturday.
Now, Congress has 28 MLAs parked at a resort in Raipur and has to ensure just one more to ensure their victory. All eyes were on Kuldeep Bishnoi whether he will go the other way but now the party insiders are saying that he might not have joined the group in Raipur but Bishnoi is very much on board and it is unlikely that he will go against the party.
Kuldeep Bishnoi is considered very close to Rahul and Sonia Gandhi but his differences with Bhupinder Hooda and a group of PCC leaders came out in open recently. Apart from that, a senior Congress leader also said that some independents are also going to support Congress candidates. Congress has fielded Ajay Maken from Haryana for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections.
He left for Raipur today after attending a meeting of party leaders who are part of task force 2024 formed after Chintan Shivir in April. Maken too looked confident about his prospects, although he refused to comment on the political developments around the Rajya Sabha election. BJP and JJP have decided to support Kartikeya Sharma who has filed his nomination as an independent.
With Congress keeping its house in order and MLAs intact, both BJP and Congress will have one Rajya Sabha seat each from the state as per current numbers.
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