Cong shifts MLAs to 'safe places' to avoid poaching amid RS poll tussle

Once again, the resorts are back in business as politics heats up amid fears of horse-trading of MLAs in the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on June 10.

With BJP-backed independent candidates queering the pitch for its nominees who otherwise would have won easily, the Congress has moved its MLAs in Rajasthan and Haryana to “safe places” to ensure that they are not poached before the elections.

In Karnataka too, Congress is mulling the option of taking its MLAs to a resort to ensure that there is no poaching. There were reports of the BJP also planning to move its Rajasthan MLAs to a resort.

Except for three MLAs and Congress Legislature Party Leader Bhupinder Hooda, Congress moved 27 Haryana MLAs to Raipur in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, while around 40 Congress and independent MLAs were taken to Udaipur from Jaipur.

Haryana MLAs were called to Delhi by Hooda for a meeting and their subsequent shifting to Raipur. However, a sulking Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhary were not present, while Chiranjeev Rao, who has gone to Shimla to celebrate his birthday with his family, informed leaders that he would join them in Raipur soon.

The MLAs headed to Delhi airport in the company of Rajya Sabha MP and Hooda’s son Deepender Hooda to take a private chartered flight to Raipur in the afternoon after holding a meeting with Hooda. Maken was also present at the meeting.

All eyes are on Bishnoi, who is upset with the leadership for not considering him for the post of Haryana Congress president, which eventually went to a Hooda loyalist. Party managers believe that Choudhury may be sulking but would not rock the boat as her daughter Shruti has been made state Working President.

Congress has 31 MLAs and it would need 30 votes to get its lone candidate Ajay Maken victorious. In normal circumstances, this would have been easy but the entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma has queered the pitch with the ruling BJP and its ally JJP pledging its surplus votes to him.

Sharma may need three or four votes from the Congress and if he manages to break them, he could deal a huge blow to Maken, who is handpicked by the party High Command for the fight, ignoring claims of several senior leaders. The party managers are hopeful that Hooda himself has made it a prestige battle and would ensure Maken’s victory.

“All MLAs are with us. There will be no cross-voting from Congress. But there will be cross-voting from BJP and JJP. We will get more votes than the number of MLAs we have,” Deepender Hooda told reporters here.

In Rajasthan as MLAs are being shifted to Aravali resort where the party’s Chintan Shivir was held last month, around 40 MLAs boarded a luxury bus from Gehlot’s residence after a meeting and left for Udaipur with police escort. Thirteen independent MLAs are in Rajasthan and to ensure that its candidate wins, the Congress is leaving no stone unturned.

While it can get its candidate win, the BJP is also backing independent candidate Subhash Chandra, presently a Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana and a media baron, in a bid to deny victory for a third Congress candidate. Chandra is expected to woo independents and other MLAs.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the Congress will win three out of four Rajya Sabha seats from the state going to polls on June 10.