Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 7: As the polling day draws nearer, a psychological warfare has got underway in Rajasthan over the elections for four seats to the Rajya Sabha from the state with the Congress set to win two and the BJP one seat on the basis of respective strength of their members in the state Assembly.
Both the BJP and the Congress are claiming adequate support in the House to win the fourth seat in the elections to be held on Friday. Playing a battle of wits, the media baron Subhash Chandra, who has been fielded by the BJP as an independent candidate to try his luck for the fourth seat, on Tuesday claimed that he had already been guaranteed support at least by four disgruntled Congress MLAs who would cross-vote against the party’s official nominees.
Considering the respective strength in the 200-member state Assembly where each candidate need 41 first preference votes to clear the fence, the Congress required 15 votes from independent and other members to clinch the third seat while the BJP with 71 members have 30 surplus votes after allocating 41 for its official candidate. The Congress claimed to have garnered support of 123 members and confident of winning three seats.
But horse-trading has started with the media baron joining the fray. The Congress has already send all of its members and supporters to a resort in Udaipur to prevent them from being lured away by the opposition camp. Subhash Chandra on Tuesday claimed that he was certain to win through cross-voting by Congress MLAs. He also “appealed” to the disgruntled Congress leader and the former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot to support his candidature to take “revenge” on the Congress which “denied” his rightful place in the party. He claimed that four Congress MLAs were already supporting him and “eight will cross-vote” in his favour, he said.
The MLAs are “secretly in touch with me and I’m going to win the Rajya Sabha election,” he told reporters in Jaipur this evening. He, however, refused to name any names.
Of the four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan, the Congress, with 108 MLAs in the House, is set to bag two and the BJP is set to win one. With Mr Chandra in fray, the big race will be for a single seat, which the Congress is trying to retain.
The BJP has 71 MLAs and its surplus 30 votes will go to Mr Chandra, who also has the support of the three MLAs of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), a former NDA ally. But despite the BJP and RLP support, Mr Chandra will need eight more MLAs to win the seat. The Congress has claimed that it has the support of 123 MLAs – among them 12 Independents and two from the CPM. It, however, will need three more votes to be comfortable, for which they are eyeing the two MLAs of the Bharatiya Tribal Party.
Complaining about the possibility of horse trading by the BJP, the ruling Congress has already shifted its MLAs to a hotel in Udaipur, where they were seen enjoying dinner and a magic show last evening. Chandra, the 72-year-old Zee chairperson also had a message for Congress’s Sachin Pilot, a long-time aspirant for the top job in the state.
Pointing out that Pilot’s father Rajesh Pilot was his friend, Chandra said Sachin Pilot has an opportunity now, as a “young and popular leader.” “He can use this as an opportunity to take revenge or send a message. If Sachin Pilot misses this opportunity, he will not be able to become a Chief Minister till 2028,” he added.
Mr Pilot has dismissed Mr Chandra’s claim as “laughable”. “He has been fooled by the BJP into contesting and he will be humiliated… Subhashji, this is not a TV series or entertainment. This is serious business,” the Rajasthan Congress leader said. Pilot, seen to be behind the party’s revival in Rajasthan after its decimation by the BJP in 2011, was a contender for the Chief Minister’s post. But he was persuaded to take the job of Ashok Gehlot’s deputy by Rahul Gandhi after the party’s victory in the 2018 assembly polls. In 2020, Pilot came close to toppling the Gehlot government with a month-long standoff but was again eventually persuaded to stand down by Rahul Gandhi.
Speaking shortly after the media baron “appealed” to him for support, Pilot said the Congress has enough to win a third seat. “We have more than what we require,” he said. “If Mr Chandra has said he will get four votes, he should spell out who they are. Every single party MLA has to show their votes, so there is no question of a party MLA cross-voting,” said the Congress leader.
“No matter how many MLAs that (Mr Chandra) says they have, the Congress and all independent MLAs are together. We need 123 and we have way more,” Pilot said. “They are all in one place so there is no undue pressure on them,” he said. “I don’t think personally this is the right way forward. But this has become par for the course.”
On Mr Chandra claiming enough Congress members are resentful of the party to support him in the Rajya Sabha election, Pilot said: “No one will fall for his trap. He is desperate. There is no way he could have won earlier and no way will he win. The Congress will win handsomely.” He added: “There are three days left. All this clever manoeuvering will yield no result whatsoever. Let me assure BJP, there is no advantage to be taken.”
There is also speculation that the anger within has intensified over the party’s choice of Rajya Sabha candidates – Randeep Surjewala, Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari, all from other states and are seen as “outsiders” by local MLAs. But Pilot has answer to it too. “National parties have national leaders who come to Rajya Sabha from different states. Anybody from any part can contest. National parties have that option. I am surprised why you never asked these questions to BJP,” Pilot said.