Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Saturday that BJP would be backing (Jannayak Janata Party)-supported candidate Kartikeya Sharma, for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in the state. Sharma will primarily fight it out against Congress's Ajay Maken. Two Rajya Sabha seats are currently vacant from Haryana.
"Since the candidates have filed their nominations, and our 31 MLAs are sufficient to support Krishan Panwar, 9 other BJP MLAs will support Kartikeya Sharma, an independent candidate," Khattar said. Voting for Rajya Sabha is set to be held on June 10. Apart from Sharma, BJP has fielded former Minister Krishan Lal Panwar for the other RS seat, who needs a total of 31 votes to secure his Rajya Sabha spot. The saffron party currently has 40 MLAs in the Haryana Legislative Assembly. Following Khattar's statement, the nine remaining MLAs are likely to back Sharma.
Also read: Haryana RS polls : Kartikeya Sharma's entry gives Maken an uphill task
Congress, on the other hand, has 31 MLAs in the Haryana assembly. In the recently conducted meeting around Rajya Sabha poll strategizing, however, only 26 of them had shown up and were subsequently flown away to a Raipur resort to prevent any poaching attempts. The estimates at the moment equate to a total of 19 MLAs supporting Kartikeya Sharma, among whom 10 belong to JJP and the 9 are BJP MLAs, taking the total count to 19. Kartikeya Sharma is the son of ex-Congress leader Venod Sharma.
