The BJP today accused three MLAs of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi, or MVA, coalition in Maharashtra and two of the opposition Congress in Haryana of "compromising and vitiating" the Rajya Sabha poll process by openly showing ballot papers. The BJP asked the Election Commission to cancel their votes.
A BJP delegation, including Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jitendra Singh and Arjun Ram Meghwal, met the Election Commission after polling ended to seek an investigation into the matter and cancel their votes.
In a memorandum to the Election Commission, the BJP said the Commission had stated in the matter involving the election of Congress leader Ahmed Patel in Gujarat in 2017 that the very act of showing the ballot paper to anyone other than the election agent of one's party makes the vote invalid.
The Returning Officer is bound by rules to cancel such vote even if it has been cast in the ballot box, the BJP said.
Mr Naqvi said the BJP asked the Election Commission to stop the counting of votes till its probe was over.
MLAs from four states - Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka and Rajasthan - voted today to elect 16 members to Rajya Sabha with some being ferried from resorts they had been sequestered in amid fears of poaching by rivals.
The high-stake race to the upper house acquired urgency with the number of candidates exceeding the seats going to the polls in these four states.
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