Congress Names Four Cross-Voting MLAs In Haryana, Fifth Still A Secret

The Haryana Congress has announced the names of four of the five MLAs who cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha election. But the secrecy over the fifth name has intensified the row that started since the voting last evening. 

Earlier today, Congress state in-charge BK Hariprasad said the MLAs concerned were Mohammad Israil, Mohammad Ilyas, Renu Bala and Shaili Chaudhary, whose husband -- the party's acting president Ram Kishan Gujjar -- had resigned after the cross-voting allegations surfaced. Show-cause notices are expected to follow.

The internal fissures in the party have been laid exposed after the Rajya Sabha polls, where it almost lost the one seat they should have won comfortably on numerical strength.

Of the two seats in the state - the Congress was expected to get one and the BJP the other on basis of numerical strength. But an election became inevitable after the BJP's state Vice President Satish Nandal contested as an Independent.

Read: How Infighting Cost Congress Dear In Haryana Rajya Sabha Polls

The election and its aftermath were replete with drama. The counting was held up for hours as the Congress and the BJP accused each other of breaching vote secrecy. 

Then came the results that almost upset the Congress calculations. 

It turned out that five Congress MLAs had cross-voted. Moreover, four Congress votes and one BJP vote were declared invalid. 

Party candidate Karamvir Singh Boudh won by the narrowest-ever margin - less than one vote. The situation was so dire that had the one BJP vote not been declared invalid, Nandal would have edged past Boudh.

Read: The 4 Mahagathbandhan MLAs Who Skipped Rajya Sabha Voting In Bihar

The controversy was intense in state capital Chandigarh, where Congress MLAs Gokul Setia and Manju Chaudhary staged a sit-in protest outside the party office. With their names being circulated by media as possible wrongdoers, they demanded that the party immediately publicly disclose names of all the cross voters and take action against them.

Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda had to step in to defuse the situation. Assuring the protesting MLAs that they had done no wrong, he promised the full truth would emerge soon.

But the Congress silence over the fifth name - despite Hooda's assurance -- is now fuelling the protest. Top leaders of the state Congress  say what is really at stake here is the credibility of party leadership and internal unity in view of future elections.