Cross-Voting Disrupts Rajya Sabha and Council Polls in Jharkhand and Karnataka

While the NDA turned the tables on the INDIA bloc in Jharkhand and won an extra Rajya Sabha seat, in Karnataka, the Congress outmanoeuvred the BJP to defeat JD(S) candidate in the state council elections.

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand and the Legislative Council polls in Karnataka had one thing in common - cross-voting that disrupted the number calculation on both sides of the political divide. While the Congress-led INDIA bloc took a hit in Jharkhand, even the formidable BJP-led NDA was not spared as it suffered loss in Karnataka. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA had 24 MLAs but managed to get the backing of 30 legislators for Parimal Nathwani, the Independent candidate it was backing. The INDIA bloc, on the other hand, had 56 votes, which were enough for winning two seats. But the Congress candidate could manage just 20 - eight less than what it should have polled and lost the elections. In Karnataka, the Congress with 135 MLAs, polled 151 votes in the MLC elections. The BJP had 64 MLAs, but its two candidates together secured only 56 votes, a shortfall of eight. BJP’s ally the JD(S) had 18 MLAs but its candidate got only 14 votes. So, while the NDA turned the tables on the INDIA bloc in Jharkhand and won an extra Rajya Sabha seat, in Karnataka, the Congress outmanoeuvred the BJP to defeat JD(S) candidate in the state council elections. Ironically, both the parties hailed the rivals’ cross-voters and targeted their own. While the BJP hailed the conscience vote in Jharkhand, in Karnataka it has initiated a probe to identify those who ditched the party. Similarly, the Congress while slamming the BJP for use of money power in Jharkhand to lure cross-voters, praised the conscience vote in Karnataka. Karnataka chief minister D K Shivakumar said the result demonstrated confidence in the Congress government and thanked legislators who backed the party across political lines. In Jharkhand, BJP leaders called the result a reflection of public confidence in the NDA's developmental agenda in the state. Clearly, for both the Congress and the BJP - when rival party MLAs cross vote it is hailed as “conscience vote” but when their own MLAs cross-vote they are labelled as betrayers. Cross-voting has been a bane of elections for Rajya Sabha and legislative councils over the decades. Rajya Sabha and the councils in states were created to give opportunity to experienced and seasoned men of integrity and achievement an opportunity to become part of governance without having to go through the grind of contesting Lok Sabha, assembly elections. However, the process of secret ballot for electing them became a tool for alleged use of money and power during voting. So much so that there was at a time strong demand to abolish these houses. In 1973, a senior Congress MP Bibhuti Mishra had introduced a Private Member’s Bill in Lok Sabha for abolition of Rajya Sabha on the ground that elections to RS have been mired in corruption. But that move was rejected. Later, an Ethics Committee of Parliament headed by S B Chavan in a report, which was adopted on December 15, 1999, suggested open ballot for these elections. “The Committee has also noted the emerging trend of cross-voting in the elections for Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils in States. It is often alleged that large sums of money and other considerations encourage the electorate for these two bodies to vote in a particular manner leading sometimes to the defeat of the official candidates belonging to their own political party. In order not to allow big money and other considerations to play mischief with the electoral process, the Committee is of the view that instead of a secret ballot, the question of holding the elections to Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Councils in States by open ballot may be examined,” the report had said. The NDA government successfully pushed a Bill for amendment of Representation of People Act in 2003 and brought in the ‘Open Ballot” system for voting. Under the new process, a MP or a MLA before inserting the ballot paper into the ballot box has to show it to authorized agents of the political party for verification about whom he or she had voted for. If the MP or MLA refused to show the ballot paper to the authorized agent of the party, the same shall be invalidated. The move survived a challenge in the Supreme Court which approved the new process. However, the amendment has done little to stop allegations of money and muscle power in these elections. It has also not stopped the bane of cross-voting. Hundreds of legislators have entered Rajya Sabha and state councils helped by cross-voting from rivals. Clearly, all political parties are guilty of double standards on the issue. They slam cross-voting when it hurts them and hail it as a conscience vote when it suits them. At the end, it’s all about power dynamics and not party politics.