The battleground for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states – Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka – shifted to the Election Commission of India (EC) headquarters in New Delhi late on Friday night, with delegations from all parties reaching the Election Commission’s office and counting of votes. was delayed. In the elections concluded in Haryana and Maharashtra.
This was followed by marathon meetings with representatives of all parties from 5.30 pm to late Friday night for Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners present in the Nirvachan Sadan, following the orders of the Returning Officer and the allegations leveled by the parties. Video footage was viewed.
Finally, in an order around 1 pm on Saturday, the Election Commission directed the Returning Officer (RO) to reject the vote cast by him to allow the counting of votes in Haryana and Maharashtra to begin. Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande Election Commission also gave permission to start counting of votes in Haryana.
An Election Commission official, requesting anonymity, said: “The BJP The delegation first reached around 5.30 pm to file complaints on Haryana and Maharashtra. At around 6.30 pm, the Congress team reached to take on the BJP, and also lodged its complaint. At around 9 pm, another delegation reached with a complaint against an independent MLA. [in Maharashtra] In order to openly display the Hanuman Chalisa…by around 10 pm these complaints were investigated and counterclaims heard. ,
“We have to hear what Ro has to say; The commission cannot intervene until the RO passes the order and then probes it,” the official said. “Once he passes an order, and we felt there were conflicting claims, we go through the video footage. We got about a dozen complaints and eventually, after examining all the footage, we found only one problem. Thereafter the order was passed after midnight.”
The high-intensity political drama began when a BJP delegation was involved in Mukhtar Abbas NaqvikGajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jitendra Singh and Arjun Ram Meghwal, among others, reached the Election Commission office at 5.30 pm alleging that the RO had wrongly rejected the representation of BJP’s authorized representatives in Maharashtra. He alleged that three MLAs Yashomati Thakur, Jitendra Awhad and Suhas Kande compromised the voting process.
He cited the Election Commission’s decision in 2017 in the case of Ahmed Patel, the then Congress MP – the election panel had laid down conditions whereby any vote that violates election rules would be nullified, regardless of whether it was at the time of polling or at the time of counting. In the high-stakes Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat in 2017, the Election Commission disqualified two votes in favor of the BJP by Congress MLAs, promoting Congress candidate Patel.
After the BJP team, a delegation, jointly by Jayant Patil of the NCP, Balasaheb Thorat of the Congress and Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena, filed a complaint against a BJP MLA, other than his party’s election agents, openly distributing his ballot. Complained for violating procedures by displaying. He also alleged that an independent MLA, Ravi RanaBy openly displaying Hanuman Chalisa, a religious book, compromised the process and tried to influence other voters and violated the secrecy of the ballot paper.
He also referred to the order of Ahmed Patel of the Election Commission.
Nirvachan Sadan soon saw another delegation around 9 pm, led by Nana Patole of Congress, against BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar for allegedly displaying his ballot papers to persons other than BJP polling agents.
Sources said the Election Commission could not find any evidence against the BJP’s complaints regarding polling in Haryana and Maharashtra.
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In its order, the Election Commission noted that the video recording in the case of Shiv Sena MLA Kande – that he had allegedly shown marked ballot papers to his authorized representative as well as an authorized representative of another party, the “NCP” – outlined three facts. is in line with. In his report by the RO: “that the voter, instead of taking the ballot paper in folded form, carried it unfolded; (b) that Kande showed the ballot paper to the authorized representative of his party from outside the authorized representative’s chamber; Was asked to go inside the cubicle.”
“Despite being asked by the polling staff to go inside the cubicle, he remained with the ballot open,” the Election Commission said in its order.
“In fact, the footage showed that the symbol above [Kande’s] Others could see the ballot paper as well… that was the only complaint we found to be correct amongst all others.’
The commission used Article 324 of the Constitution and other powers to reject the vote cast by Kande.
EDOT: Why Shiv Sena MLA’s vote was rejected?
The rules state that a voter in a Rajya Sabha election has to show his ballot paper “only to the authorized representative of his party and not to anyone else”. As the Election Commission said in its order rejecting the vote cast by Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande, independent MLAs “should not show their ballot papers to anyone”.