Ranchi:
In an unprecedented move, the Election Commission has written to President Pratibha Patil, recommending that the Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand be countermanded. The Election Commission in its letter to the President has asked for nominations to be filed again.
The poll panel had earlier on Friday suspended the counting of votes.
This came after Rs 2 crore, in cash, was found this morning from a car in Ranchi. The vehicle belongs to a businessman whose brother, RK Agarwal, was contesting the Rajya Sabha elections from the state. Mr Agarwal is an independent candidate.
The Election Commission stated, "The report of the Returning Officer shows that out of 81 members of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly (one seat being vacant), 79 members cast their votes at the poll today. He has further reported that during the poll, three voters, namely, Shri Vishnu Bhaiya (of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), Shri K.N. Tripathi (of Indian National Congress), and Shri Suresh Pashwan (of Rashtriya Janata Dal) showed their ballot papers to persons other than their respective party agents, and thus, violated the prescribed voting procedure. This raises a strong suspicion that the votes of the above-mentioned three MLAs may have been influenced by the alleged horse trading about which strong apprehensions had been raised by Shri Gurudas Das Gupta, Babu Lal Marandi and Sharad Yadav. "
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha said he was "very happy" at the Election Commission's move. Mr Sinha who is an Lok Sabha MP from Jharkhand added that he had been in favour of the BJP MLAs abstaining, which did not happen.
"The Rajya Sabha elections have become a happy hunting ground for money bags from India and also abroad. It is very important that such tendencies are nipped in the bud. Therefore, this salutary step the Election Commission has taken will go a long way in dissuading such people from barging in the elections like some of did in Jharkhand," Mr Sinha said.
He added, "There is a lesson in this for all of us and for all those who take decisions. We have to be very very careful and circumspect in taking decisions in future about who should contest Rajya Sabha elections. My feeling is that Rajya Sabha should be reserved for well-deserving party people rather than people who just appear on scene, buy their way through with help of pots of money."
Seven candidates were contesting the Jharkhand's two Rajya Sabha seats.
In its communication to the returning officers of the assemblies of Jharkhand, the Election Commission had asked them to submit detailed and comprehensive reports of the conduct of polls on Friday with special reference to any untoward incident immediately after voting was over.
The state has a notorious history of serving as an entry point to the Rajya Sabha for wealthy businessmen.
This time around, the Left's Gurudas Dasgupta had written to the Election Commission alleging that MLAs who vote for the Rajya Sabha MPs are being "horse-traded." He also complained that Jharkhand has begun hosting outsiders with little or no experience in politics as candidates for the Rajya Sabha.
The most controversial candidate this year was Anshuman Mishra, an NRI who resides in London. He was initially offered support by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but withdrew from the election after some of the party's most senior leaders, like Mr Sinha and Sushma Swaraj, said they would ask BJP MLAs to vote against him.
R K Aggarwal, who was being backed by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), is a businessman from Chhattisgarh. Another candidate, Pawan Kumar Dhoot is a businessman from Kolkata.