The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and an ally on Thursday won all four Rajya Sabha seats in the northeastern states. At the same time, for the first time in parliamentary history, the Congress has not got any representation from this constituency in the Upper House. BJP won the Tripura seat on the strength of its numbers and won the Nagaland seat unopposed. Cross-voting and invalid opposition votes in Assam helped the saffron party and its ally UPPL win both the seats where elections were held.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Our strategy was to trust the conscience of the MLAs. We have got seven votes from Congress MLAs.” Let us tell you that in the 126-member assembly, the BJP and its allies fell short of the votes required to win both the Rajya Sabha seats by four votes. One seat could have easily gone to the opposition.
Congress wiped out from North East
BJP’s Pabitra Margherita and UPPL’s Ravangra Narzari have won two seats in Assam. On the other hand, Congress candidate and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora, who was the common opposition’s general candidate, faced defeat. The NDA now has 13 of the 14 seats in the Upper House from this region. Independents hold one seat in Assam.
The BJP also won the Nagaland seat, which was held by its ally NPF, unopposed. In Tripura, the CPI(M) lost its seat to the BJP. BJP candidate and state party president Manik Saha won in Tripura by defeating CPM candidate, former minister and sitting MLA Bhanu Lal Saha. In Nagaland, BJP’s S Phangnon Konyak created history in state politics and became the first woman to be elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Congress complained to the Election Commission
Counting of votes for two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam was delayed by over five hours after the Election Commission began hearing complaints from the Congress. A total of five MLAs, including three from the BJP, had allegedly violated the election rules. Counting of votes began at 10.25 pm after the Election Commission dismissed all complaints.
The Congress filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that its suspended MLA Shashikant Das, BPF MLA Durgadas Boro and three BJP MLAs Hitendra Nath Goswami, Ganesh Limbu and Sanjay Kishan violated the election rules while casting their votes.