Gurugram: The Congress has finally revealed the name of the last of its five legislators who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election on 16 March, which witnessed party nominee Karamveer Boudh win a seat in the Upper House by a wafer-thin margin despite the party having comfortable numbers.
On Friday, Congress disciplinary committee chairman Dharampal Malik served a show cause notice to Jarnail Singh, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Ratia in Fatehabad district, asking him to explain his conduct within seven days.
Singh becomes the fifth Congress legislator to be formally accused of cross-voting in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party-backed independent Satish Nandal in the Rajya Sabha election.
For two days, the question hung in the air. A day after the election, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda had said that five of his MLAs had voted against the party line in the Rajya Sabha election. All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Haryana B.K. Hariprasad revealed the names of four Wednesday, saying that show cause notices were served to Shalley Chaudhary from Naraingarh, Renu Bala from Sadhaura, Mohammad Ilyas from Punhana, and Mohammad Israil from Hathin.
The announcement came when Congress MLA from Sirsa Gokul Setia, accompanied by Bimla Chaudhary from Nangal Chaudhary, sat on dharna outside the Haryana Congress office in Chandigarh demanding action against those who voted against the party so that others like them do not come under suspicion.
Hooda himself, when pressed by reporters Thursday, had said the fifth name would “come to fore soon”.
The arithmetic was not in dispute. The name was. And on Friday, it was revealed.
Ratia MLA Jarnail Singh is counted firmly among Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s own loyalists. He was among the 31 Congress MLAs whom the party herded off to Himachal Pradesh for three days of what it called protective custody—a precaution against poaching by the BJP.
When the AICC incharge named those facing action, the fifth slot had remained conspicuously unannounced. No explanation had been offered at the time.
The four previously named legislators are a mixed lot. Shalley Chaudhary and Renu Bala are both serving their second terms. Chaudhary’s husband Ramkishan Gujjar had won from Naraingarh in 2005, defeating Nayab Saini, now chief minister, and lost this seat to Saini in 2014.
Mohammad Ilyas from Punhana is a five-time MLA—he won in 1991, 2000, 2009, 2019 and 2024, and has at various points been associated with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) before finding his way to the Congress.
Mohammad Israil, also a second-term MLA, is a political inheritor: his father Jaleb Khan was a legislator and served as Chief Parliamentary Secretary in the Hooda government.
Jarnail Singh first became an MLA from Ratia in 2000 on an INLD ticket. However, the INLD denied him ticket and gave it to Gian Chand Odh, who won the seat in 2005 and 2009. On Odh’s death in 2011, Jarnail Singh was fielded by the Congress against Odh’s wife Sarfi Devi. Singh won.
After losing to INLD and BJP respectively in 2014 and 2019, Jarnail Singh won from Ratia again in 2024, and is considered Hooda’s man.
Also Read: Cross-voting nearly cost Congress Haryana Rajya Sabha seat. Now its state president has quit
How Congress won the RS seat
In the 16 March Rajya Sabha election, of Haryana’s 90 MLAs, two from INLD abstained from voting. Five Congress MLAs voted for BJP-backed independent candidate Satish Nandal instead of the party’s official nominee Karamveer Boudh. Five more votes, four from Congress and one from BJP, were declared invalid.
That left 83 valid votes in play. Under the single transferable vote system, the winning quota worked out to 27.67 votes.
BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia got 39 first-preference votes and crossed the threshold comfortably, with his surplus going to Nandal. Boudh received 28 first-preference votes. Nandal accumulated 27.33, his 16 first-preference votes plus Bhatia’s transferred surplus. The margin between Nandal and Boudh was a mere 0.67 of a vote.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)