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Amidst the claims of purity and principles in Indian politics, the genie of ‘cross voting’ has once again come out. The results of Rajya Sabha elections held in Jharkhand and Legislative Council (MLC) elections of Karnataka have not only spoiled the political mathematics of the country, but have also completely exposed the political double standards of the country’s two largest parties – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.
The most interesting sight seen in this election season was that when an MLA from the opposition party switches sides, he is given a grand welcome by calling him ‘voice of conscience’, but when an MLA from his own party rebels, he is immediately declared a ‘traitor’ and a victim of money power.
Big blow to Indi alliance in Jharkhand: Congress votes cut, NDA independent candidate wins
In Jharkhand’s Rajya Sabha elections, the Congress-led INDIA alliance lost an extra seat it had won due to infighting and cross-voting by its own MLAs. If we understand the mathematics of this election, the BJP led NDA in Jharkhand had only 24 MLAs, but they fitted such pieces behind the scenes that they managed to garner the support of a total of 30 MLAs in favor of independent candidate Parimal Nathwani.
On the other hand, in terms of numbers, the Indi alliance had a total of 56 seats, which was enough to easily win two seats. Despite this, due to internal strife, only 20 votes fell in the Congress candidate’s bag and he had to face a crushing defeat. After this result, BJP leaders have described it as a symbol of the confidence of the MLAs on the development agenda of NDA in the state.
Bet backfires in Karnataka: 8 MLAs of BJP-JDS alliance defeated, Congress in trouble
A completely different story from Jharkhand was seen in the Legislative Council (MLC) elections of Karnataka, where the BJP-led NDA alliance had to face a crushing defeat due to the rebellion of its own MLAs. Congress has 135 MLAs in Karnataka Assembly, but when the results of MLC elections came, everyone was stunned as Congress candidates got a total of 151 votes.
On the other hand, the two candidates of BJP, which has 64 MLAs, could get only 56 votes, which was 8 votes less than their original number. Not only this, BJP’s ally JDS had 18 MLAs, but their candidate got only 14 votes. In this way, a total of 8 opposition MLAs completely spoiled the game of BJP-JDS alliance by cross-voting in favor of Congress.
Political hypocrisy: What is ‘treason’ in one state is ‘voice of conscience’ in another state.
After the results of these two states, the dual character of both Congress and BJP is clearly visible. In Jharkhand, BJP welcomed the MLAs who switched sides with open arms, but in Karnataka, as soon as 8 of its MLAs betrayed, BJP immediately termed it as betrayal and constituted an internal inquiry committee to identify the rebel MLAs.
Congress also has a similar stance; The Congress made serious allegations of BJP using money-power and central agencies to crack down on its MLAs who cross-voted in Jharkhand, but Chief Minister D.K. Calling it a ‘vote given on the basis of conscience’, Shivakumar expressed his gratitude to the rebel MLAs and said that these results reflect the unwavering faith of the people and public representatives in the Congress government.
