In a big setback for the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, party’s nominee for Rajya Sabha polls, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, lost the poll as “nine MLAs including six from the party cross-voted”.
With both Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Harsh Mahajan and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi getting 34 votes each, the winner was decided through a draw of lots.
In the voting, six Congress MLAs and three independent MLAs voted in favor of the BJP candidate. For the election to one seat in the Rajya Sabha, Abhishek Manu Singhvi was the Congress candidate, while Harsh Mahajan was the BJP candidate. Currently, Congress has 40 MLAs, while BJP has 25 and there are 3 independents.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jai Ram Thakur said that the Congress has lost the Rajya Sabha election and congratulated the party’s candidate, Harsh Mahajan for winning the polls.
67 of the total 68 legislators exercised their votes in the Rajya Sabha election in Shimla.