Congress mulls action against Kuldeep Bishnoi for cross-voting in RS polls

New Delhi, June 11

The Congress is mulling action against Kuldeep Bishnoi for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, which led to party candidate Ajay Maken's defeat in Haryana, sources said here on Saturday.

Two Congress MLAs cross-voted in Haryana as the party candidate got only 29 votes out of 31 and independent backed by BJP Kartikeya Sharma defeated him with a slight margin.

Congress state in-charge Vivek Bansal has spoken to party leadership regarding the action. Bishnoi, meanwhile, tweeted a cryptic message which read: "I have the capability to crush snakes' hood, do not leave the jungle in the fear of snakes."

Bishnoi was upset with the party after he was denied state President post and had said he will only take a decision after meeting Rahul Gandhi but the meeting did not take place.

The loss in Haryana has put Bhupinder Singh Hooda in a tight spot and party leadership is likely to take a view on it as he had promised to win the seat for the party. Only Rajasthan CM could create a miracle for the party winning all the three seats.

BJP nominee Krishan Lal Panwar and Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma emerged victorious. Earlier, the two had written to the EC alleging that Congress MLAs -- Kiran Choudhary and B.B. Batra -- showed their ballot papers to unauthorised persons after marking them, but the EC rejected their objections and counting was restarted.

Of the 90 members in the Haryana Assembly, 89 cast their votes, officials said. Independent legislator Balraj Kundu abstained from voting.