Haryana Congress names 4 RS poll cross-voters after two MLAs’ dharna to push party to clear their names

Gokul Setia & Manju Chaudhary staged protest outside party office in Chandigarh, saying their names are being wrongly circulated as those who cross-voted. Hooda met both legislators.

Congress' Sirsa MLA Gokul Setia and Nangal Chaudhary's MLA Manju Chaudhary on a dharna outside party's Chandigarh office. | By special arrangement

Gurugram: Cross-voting by Congress MLAs in the Rajya Sabha bypoll continues to ripple through the Opposition party, with at least two Haryana MLAs publicly demanding the disclosure of the names of those who broke ranks.

Gokul Setia, the Congress MLA from Sirsa, sat on a dharna at the party office gate in Chandigarh Wednesday. He was joined by Manju Chaudhary, the MLA from Nangal Chaudhary.

In the Rajya Sabha polls, in which Congress candidate Kartamveer Boudh barely scraped through, five Congress MLAs were said to have voted for an Independent candidate, and four Congress votes were declared invalid. Hooda had said on Tuesday that five people voted against the party candidate.

The party had said it would issue show-cause notices to these MLAs, although it had not revealed their identities. That silence, both MLAs said, had allowed rumours and speculation to fill the vacuum, and their names had ended up in the mix.

Even as the two MLAs sat on the dharna, Haryana Congress in-charge B.K. Hariprasad held a press conference in Delhi and named the four MLAs he said had cross-voted—Shalley Chaudhary from Naraingarh, Mohammad Ilyas from Punahana, Mohammad Israil from Hathin, and Renu Bala from Sadhaura.

Hariprasad said the party’s disciplinary committee chairman, Dharampal Malik, had been informed, and show-cause notices would be sent to all four during the day. The fifth name was not disclosed, leaving a loose end that the party did not explain.

Notably, a day before the names were announced, Shalley Chaudhary’s husband, Ram Kishan Gujjar, resigned from the post of Congress working president and from the party.

The grievance

Both the protesting MLAs said their names have been irresponsibly floated on social media as among those whose votes were either cancelled or cast in favour of the Independent candidate. Neither was willing to quietly absorb that suspicion while the party leadership said nothing.

Their demand had two parts. First, the Congress must publicly name the MLAs who cross-voted. Second, it must identify those whose ballots were invalidated, and explain the circumstances. Until that happens, they said, innocent legislators will continue to carry the stain of a betrayal they did not commit.

“Why should we be counted among those who cheated the party?” Setia asked.

Setia released a video late Tuesday night putting his party leadership on notice—either publicly name the five MLAs who cross-voted, or find him sitting in protest outside the party office in Chandigarh on Wednesday 9 am.

In his video, Setia said five votes went to the independent candidate and three to four ballots were invalidated. He wanted the party to first account for the cancelled votes, who cast them, and why,  and then identify the five who abandoned the party line altogether.

“I will sit at the gate of the party office in Sector 9 at nine in the morning. This is about my existence,” he said, with the frustration of a man who knows his constituency is already asking questions he cannot answer.

He went further. Removing five to seven MLAs from a group of 37 will not bring down the government, he argued. What it will do is send a message. Without that, he warned, these legislators will quietly cut deals with the ruling dispensation, and the party will find itself unable to build new leadership in their areas.

“These people should be thrown out,” he said.

In Setia’s case, there is an added complication. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini recently visited his home. In the political climate following the cross-voting, that visit alone was enough to seed suspicion. Setia has been categorical that it was a social courtesy and nothing more.

“The CM came to my house. I respect him and will continue to. This is a social relationship; it does not mean I go against my party,” he said. “Khattar sahab also spoke to me. But this is a social relationship; it does not mean I go against my party.”

The dharna did not stretch into a prolonged demonstration. Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda arrived at the party office, met both legislators, and took them in his car to his residence.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)