TNR Desk
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued a notice to BJP’s recently elected Rajya Sabha MP Harsh Mahajan on a petition filed by losing candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The case was heard in the court of Justice Ajay Mohan Goel and the next hearing is on May 23 (2024).
Singhvi, a senior advocate and an All India Congress Committee spokesperson, had challenged in the high court the practice of determining a winner through draw of lots in case of a tie during the Rajya Sabha elections.
Speaking to journalists after the hearing on Saturday (April 20, 2024), a lawyer appearing on Singhvi’s behalf said that they put forth their argument in the court, which issued a notice to Harsh Mahajan for May 23.
In case of a tie in the Rajya Sabha elections, the candidate whose name appears in the draw of lots through lottery system is declared the loser. While filing the petition, Singhvi had argued that it was legally flawed system to declare a candidate who loses in the slip system as winner.
Singhvi had lost to BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan during the election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal on February 27. Both Singhvi and Mahajan got 34 votes each after six Congress rebel MLAs cross-voted for the BJP while the three independent legislators too backed the saffron party. The BJP tally rose from 25 votes to 34 after it got the support of nine MLAs while the Congress suffered a loss of six votes from its count of 40 legislators.
Singhvi had asserted that typically, the candidate whose name was drawn should be declared the winner. “Therefore, if this assumption is flawed, the election result itself becomes erroneous. While there is no such legal rule, the perception of it has been challenged in high court,” he said.
Having 40 MLAs in the 68-member Vidhan Sabha, the Congress was confident of its victory, but the six dissidents dealt it a blow by cross-voting for the BJP. Not only did Singhvi lose the election, but the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government was also reduced to a minority in the Assembly.
The six rebel MLAs — Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), ID Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret), Davinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) and Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti) — have since been disqualified from the Assembly. The byelections to these six seats are to be held alongside the Himachal Lok Sabha elections on June 1. The BJP has fielded all the six Congress turncoats in the Assembly byelections.
