The tussle in the INDIA opposition bloc over the defeat of the Congress candidate in intensified on Friday, with the CPI(ML) Liberation registering a strong protest after the Congress accused two of its MLAs of cross-voting.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, the general secretary of the CPIML (Liberation) and a key face of the INDIA bloc, shot off a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, calling the accusation a “malicious lie”. “We are shocked to see that the Congress is blaming our MLAs in Jharkhand for the defeat of Congress nominee Pranav Jha in the election from Jharkhand on 18 June. This is a malicious lie. Both our MLAs voted for Mr. Jha as planned in the meeting of opposition MLAs. Our polling agents duly verified the votes before the ballots were cast,” he wrote.
“I write to you to express our strong protest against the wholly unfounded and malicious propaganda against our MLAs and the attempted tarnishing of our party’s Image. In election after election our MLAs In Bihar and Jharkhand have voted for opposition candidates In Rajya Sabha. As you know, our party has been one of the most committed constituents of the INDIA bloc since its formation,” Bhattacharya said. “We call upon you to ask Congress leaders to stop making unverified and unwarranted allegations against allies that undermine mutual trust among parties of the INDIA bloc. Given the wide publicity the malicious lie has got in the media, we are constrained to release this letter to the public,” he wrote.
In an embarrassing setback, the Congress lost the election for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs in Jharkhand. One of the seats was won by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate and former minister Baidyanath Ram. The other was won by NDA-backed Independent Parimal Nathwani, the Director of Corporate Affairs for Reliance Industries. Nathwani edged out Congress’s Pranav Jha, All India Congress Committee secretary attached to party president Kharge’s office.
In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, a candidate required 28 first-preference votes to win the election to the Upper House of Parliament. The JMM-led alliance has 56 MLAs and without cross-voting, both of its candidates would have made it through. According to sources, Ram received 30 votes and Nathwani got 30 votes, but two were found to be invalid. Jha managed only 21 votes, and one was declared invalid.
The Congress alleged that four RJD MLAs and two legislators of the CPI(M-L) Liberation did not vote for Jha. The AICC’s Jharkhand in-charge, K Raju, alleged that the RJD and CPI(M-L) Liberation “betrayed the alliance”, accusing the BJP of engineering the outcome through “horse-trading”.
In Bhattacharya’s letter is a potent sentence: “We call upon you to ask Congress leaders to stop making unverified and unwarranted allegations against allies that undermine mutual trust among parties of the INDIA bloc.” This is significant against the backdrop of the rumblings within the opposition bloc, especially after the Assembly poll results earlier this year. The Congress’s move to part ways with the DMK and join hands with Vijay’s TVK in drew criticism from allies in the INDIA bloc meeting on June 8.
