The ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in Haryana managed to secure one Rajya Sabha seat each in the elections held on Monday. The Election Commission declared BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia and Congress’s Karamvir Singh Boudh as winners in the closely watched contest, which also allegedly saw cross-voting and allegations of “election theft”.

The counting was to begin at 5 pm after voting ended at 4 pm. It was, however, delayed for more than five hours following complaints lodged by both parties with the Election Commission alleging violation of vote secrecy,

At 1:15 am, senior Congress leaders including Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, party general secretary in-charge of Haryana BK Hariprasad, state party chief Rao Narender Singh confirmed the victory of their party’s candidate. Haryana education minister and BJP leader Mahipal Dhanda announced the win of BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia.

“The Returning Officer tried to steal the election by invalidating the votes of our four MLAs, but our people foiled that attempt,” alleged Hariprasad.

Hooda hinted at cross-voting, but said he would not name those involved. Hariprasad asserted that action would be taken against anyone who betrayed the Congress.

Those in the fray include BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia, Congress’s Karamvir Singh Boudh and Independent candidate Satish Nandal. The BJP is backing Nandal, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly polls as its nominee.

As soon as the voting ended, Haryana Cabinet Minister Krishan Bedi, who is also BJP candidate’s election agent, said they have complained to the EC pertaining to “violation of vote secrecy” of two Congress MLAs — Bharat Singh Beniwal (Ellenabad) and Paramvir Singh (Tohana). “They showed the ballot papers openly. They did not have it folded, thus violating the secrecy of their vote,” Bedi said.

However, Congress leader Ashok Arora said no complaint was filed with the returning officer at the time the party legislators voted. “The complaint was deliberately filed after 4 pm,” Arora said.

He further said the Congress too has filed a complaint against senior BJP leader and minister Anil Vij, accusing him of violating vote secrecy.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to the Election Commission alleging “a clear attempt to interfere with the integrity of the election” in Haryana. In the letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and two election commissioners, Kharge alleged an attempt to interfere with the integrity of the Rajya Sabha election and sought time for a party delegation to meet him. He requested the EC that the legitimate votes of Congress legislators should not be disqualified.

“There is a clear attempt to interfere with the integrity of the election and it must be stopped/ redressed by the ECI immediately. Furthermore, no disqualification of our legitimate voters/votes cast can be allowed in what is clearly a transparent attempt to taint/derail the process,” the Congress chief said.

“Given the time sensitive nature of the matter, we request time immediately for a delegation led by Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi along with senior leaders from the party to meet your good self before the declaration of the results,” he said .

Later, Bedi also lodged another complaint with the EC against the returning officer for not declaring Beniwal’s vote “as invalid.” “He (Benwial) has allowed the party representative to take into possession the custody of his ballot paper… as per Rule 39 (AA) of Rule 70 of conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, he has to only show the marked side of the ballot to the agent,” Bedi said in his complaint.

“As per the Rule, under no circumstances the ballot paper can be handed over to the authorised agent of the party of the candidate. The ballot paper must remain in his possession, and it clearly violates the voting procedure as well as the secrecy,” Bedi said, demanding that the returning officer be directed to reject Beniwal’s vote immediately.

The BJP has 48 MLAs, the Congress has 37, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has two MLAs and three legislators are Independents in the 90-member Haryana assembly. With the INLD members abstaining from voting, 30 votes each are required for Congress and the BJP candidates to make it to the Rajya Sabha.

Before the polling ended, several Cabinet ministers expressed confidence that the BJP and the Independent candidate backed by it, will win.

Earlier, the Congress MLAs, who had been shifted to Himachal Pradesh by the party, returned shortly after the polling began at 9 am and cast their votes.

Hooda had expressed confidence that the the Congress and the BJP will win one seat each.

Vij, who had recently fractured both his legs after a fall, arrived on a wheelchair to cast his vote.

On the Congress sending its MLAs to Himachal days ahead of polling, Vij said, “The Congress does not trust its MLAs.”

Ahead of the polling, the Congress had moved its MLAs to Kufri in Himachal Pradesh on Friday. They were accompanied by Rao Narender, Hariprasad and some party MPs from the state, including Deepender Singh Hooda.

They were shifted to Kasauli in Solan on Sunday and returned to Chandigarh on Monday morning.

Earlier, explaining the reasons behind abstaining from polling, INLD president Abhay Singh Chautala said that people had asked him to keep a distance from both the BJP and the Congress.

The Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana have been marred by controversies in the past too. Twice in the past — in 2016 and 2022 — the Congress candidate had lost despite having the required numbers with seats going to the BJP-backed independents.

In 2022, Congress’s Ajay Maken lost to BJP-JJP-backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma despite the party having the required strength of 31 then to win the seat. The then Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, now with the BJP, cross-voted while another Congress vote was declared invalid.

In 2016, the votes of 14 Congress MLAs were declared invalid leading to the loss of a party-backed independent candidate who was otherwise expected to win.