With Rajya Sabha polls closing in on Friday, resort politics is back in full form in Haryana and Rajasthan.
In Rajasthan, the Congress is set to win two seats while the BJP is assured of one. However, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had accused the BJP of the horse-trading attempts ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls and asked why the party backed media baron Subhash Chandra's candidature when it lacked numbers to win the seat. Gehlot's statement came a day after Chandra claimed that eight MLAs of the ruling Congress in the state may vote for him and asked former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot to cross sides.
The Congress is set to win two seats while the BJP is assured of one. Both parties need the support of independent legislators and MLAs of other parties to win one more seat. The BJP has 71 MLAs in the state Assembly, enough to get one seat comfortably. After that, it will have 30 surplus votes, which along with three of the RLP are set to go to Subhash Chandra. He will need eight more votes to win the seat
To protect their MLAs from being lured by the rival parties, the Congress had shifted them to a hotel in Udaipur on June 2. The BJP has also shifted its MLAs to a resort on the outskirts of Jaipur in the name of a training camp.
At the same time, the Haryana BJP has shifted its MLAs to a resort near Chandigarh, while the state Congress is likely to fly back its legislators who have been lodged in Chhattisgarh on the day of voting. Three candidates are in the fray for two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana. The BJP has fielded Krishan Panwar and extended support to independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma who also has the backing of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), an ally of the BJP. Ajay Maken is the Congress nominee for the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana. Both BJP and Congress have claimed that they have the numbers to ensure the victory of their candidates.
