More than a month has passed but the main opposition Congress could not disclose the name of a legislator who voted wrongly which resulted in the defeat of the party contestant Ajay Maken in the Rajya Sabha polls. Following the issue, the Congress High Command had urged to publicly reveal the name of the party MLA but irrespective of the aforesaid, the scenario remains unchanged.
The whole issue put the role of the Congress state in-charge Vivek Bansal under the scanner as he was the authorised agent during polls who not only checks the marked Ballot Paper of Party MLAs but also verifies the same after the declaration of result before the record is sealed by the Returning Officer (R.O.).
Bansal continues to state that he is not able to recall the identity of that particular MLA during the voting process.
Hemant Kumar, an expert and a lawyer at Punjab and Haryana High Court, said that although he had very much shown the wrongly marked vote to him before inserting the same in Ballot Box, not only during voting but even after the declaration of result and before the record is finally sealed, it is clearly provided in Rule 84(c) of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 that the R.O. shall, before sealing the packets (that is containing both valid and rejected ballot papers), allow the authorised agent of every political party to verify as to whom the electors have cast their votes.
Out of 31 votes, 30 were polled in favour of the Congress candidate but one vote was declared invalid during counting since it was not properly marked and resulted in Maken’s defeat.
Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was upset with the party high command after he was denied the post of state party president, had cast his in support of independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma.
The party legislators continue to demand to disclose the name of that MLA who did so be it intentionally or unintentionally as they are being asked by everyone continuously about it.