For the Congress-led INDIA bloc the loss of two Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar and Orissa may not be much in terms of numerical strength, for the grand old party it is a grave setback and that too when the party is in the midst of elections in four important states and one union territory.
Although Haryana was a saving grace where the party managed to get its nominee elected, even there five of its legislators ‘cross voted’ against their own party candidate. This obviously reflects badly on the leadership within the respective states as also at the national level.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his man Friday KC Venugopal, the ‘all powerful’ general secretary in-charge of the organisation will also need to give it a serious thought. The Congress cannot merely rest on the excuse that the BJP is “stealing” the elections and seek sympathy from the electorate. The BJP may be “snatching” elections from the Congress, but is certainly not stealing these.
Deft political manoeuvring is part of political games. In 1999, the Congress not only snatched away the election, but the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee by preying on vulnerable target Saifudin Soz of the National Conference, which at that time was with the National Democratic Alliance. It led to the fall of the Vajpayee government in no confidence motion that the government lost by a single vote.
The government had cobbled up the numbers, without realising that one of the ally’s MP had been won over by the Congress, for whatever reasons.
Soz later became a Congress Rajya Sabha member, a union minister and also the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president. That was the reward he undoubtedly deserved. But as luck would have it, the Congress was not able to cobble together the numbers to form the government although Sonia Gandhi, the then Congress president did go to the President and staked the claim for forming the government. In an embarrassment later, it was revealed she did not have enough numbers. The Parliament was dissolved and fresh elections were called. Vajpayee remained the caretaker Prime Minister. In the General Elections, the NDA returned to power with a thumping majority.
The BJP is now only returning the favour. What the Congress did to the BJP in 1999, the BJP has now been repeatedly doing to it, without leaving any chance to poach upon its leaders and legislators as senior as former union ministers and former chief ministers.
Two Rajya Sabha seats would not make much difference to the BJP or the NDA, which already has 141 members in a house of 242. But what it proves is the seriousness of the BJP that how much it values and how keenly it fights the elections no matter what their implications are. The BJP simply does not like to lose.
Also read: Challenges of cross-voting in RS elections
The Congress has lost five MLAs to the cross voting in Haryana, three in Orissa and other three abstained from voting in Bihar, thus facilitating the victory of the fifth NDA candidate. If everything had gone on well, the NDA would have won four and the INDIA bloc would have won one seat in Bihar. Interestingly, five MLAs of the All-India Anjuman Ittehad ul Muslimeen (AIAIM) led by Asaduddin Owaisi voted for the INDIA bloc candidate. Otherwise, Owaisi is always accused of having a hidden understanding with the BJP.
In Orissa, three Congress legislators cross-voted in favour of the BJP supported independent candidate. Overall, 11 Congress MLAs went against the party line in these Rajya Sabha elections.
This is not for the first time that Congress legislators have indulged in cross voting. It happened in Haryana twice earlier. It also happened in Himachal Pradesh also, when Abhishek Manu Singhvi got defeated from there in earlier RS elections.
So far, in the recent past there has not been any cross voting reported by any of the BJP MLAs anywhere. This is for obvious reasons that the party has been in power at the Centre for about 12 years now and is ruling several states across the country. There is always an incentive to be part of the ruling dispensation, which nobody would like to lose.
The root cause of ‘cross voting’ by the Congress legislators remains factionalism besides the weak leadership, perceived or real. The party cannot invoke the Anti-Defection Law against such MLAs as cross voting does not come under it. The only option for the party is to expel these MLAs, which will hardly be a punishment, as they will continue to be legislators since they will not need to resign their seats.
This does not reflect well for the party at a time when it is fighting a high stakes electoral battle in two important states of Assam and Kerala, where it is in direct contest with the ruling dispensations and has a fair chance of winning.
Past experiences in the party suggest that everything is “forgiven” in due course of time. If a particular candidate has fair chances of winning, his past indiscipline and betrayal are ignored. Those who betray the party seem to know it well and in such safe knowledge that nothing will eventually happen they have the audacity to vote against party candidates in the RS elections. The party will have to change this perception.
Follow us
