"2023 Next": Ashok Gehlot On Congress Win Vs BJP-Backed Subhash Chandra

After the Congress won three of the four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan on Friday, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot congratulated his party's candidates and said the BJP's attempt at horse-trading had failed. 

राजस्थान में तीन राज्यसभा सीटों पर कांग्रेस की विजय लोकतंत्र की जीत है। मैं तीनों नवनिर्वाचित सांसदों श्री प्रमोद तिवारी, श्री मुकुल वासनिक एवं श्री रणदीप सुरजेवाला को बधाई देता हूं। मुझे पूर्ण विश्वास है कि तीनों सांसद दिल्ली में राजस्थान के हक की मजबूती से पैरवी कर सकेंगे।

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) June 10, 2022

Congress candidates Pramod Tiwari, Mukul Wasnik and Randeep Surjewala registered victories.

The BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari won too. The party was sure of this victory as it had the required number of MLAs. The contentious matter was whether Subhash Chandra, a media baron who was contesting as an Independent with BJP support, would manage to get enough MLAs to vote for him after getting surplus votes of the BJP. 

यह शुरू से स्पष्ट था कि कांग्रेस के पास तीनों सीटों के लिए जरूरी बहुमत है। परन्तु भाजपा ने एक निर्दलीय को उतारकर हॉर्स ट्रेडिंग का प्रयास किया। हमारे विधायकों की एकजुटता ने इस प्रयास को करारा जवाब दिया है। 2023 विधानसभा चुनाव में भी भाजपा को इसी तरह हार का सामना करना पड़ेगा।

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) June 10, 2022

In his tweets, Mr Gehlot also expressed confidence that the BJP will face "a defeat just like this one" in the Rajasthan assembly elections due in 2023 too.

While Mr Tiwari got the required 41 votes, Mr Wasnik (42 votes) and Mr Surjewala (43 votes) got more votes than what the Congress was sure of. BJP candidate Ghanshyam Tiwari won with 43 votes, which means he got two extra votes too. But Zee business group chairman Subhash Chandra, who won from Haryana last time, could manage only 30 votes, 11 short of the mark.

As none of the three Congress candidates was from Rajasthan, there was heightened speculation of cross-voting. While Mr Surjewala is from Haryana, Mr Wasnik is from Maharashtra and Mr Tiwari  from Uttar Pradesh.

Elections are held for the Rajya Sabha seats that fall vacant cyclically as some members retire every two years. A member's term is for six years.

The elections today were for 16 seats in the Upper House across four states (Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka). 

A total of 57 seats had fallen vacant but 41 candidates from different parties in 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, had won unopposed already. Voting was necessitated for 16 seats, and it concluded at 4pm. 

Results were scheduled for 5 pm but allegations of invalid voting led to delays.