RS polls: Cong leader Kuldeep Bishnoi cross-votes in Haryana, may be suspended from party

New Delhi, Jun 11: Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, who cross-voted in Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, may soon be removed from the party. At the same time, his membership in the Congress Working Committee (CWC Special Invitee) will also be removed.

'A letter will also be written to the Speaker to get his Membership canceled from Assembly, Congress sources said on Saturday.

In Haryana, Congress candidate Ajay Maken lost the Rajya Sabha elections to media baron Kartikeya Sharma, the BJP-backed independent candidate, by a "narrow margin", a huge shock for the grand old party which was confident of the winning the seat.

"By a very very, very narrow margin, Ajay Maken has lost," Haryana Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra told reporters after the results of the polls held on Friday came in.

Out of 90 MLAs in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, independent candidate Balraj Kundu abstained and a vote, apparently of Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, was rejected leaving 88 votes valid. Sharma, who was backed by the BJP and its ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), got 29.6 votes while Maken received 29 votes.

Polling was held on June 10 to elect two members to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana. BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar scored a comfortable victory with 31 votes, leaving the battle for the second seat between Maken and Sharma.

Amid allegations of cross-voting and rule violations, the counting of votes was delayed and there was a recounting of votes that went on past midnight.