A day after the Congress narrowly won one Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana, the party announced disciplinary action against five of its MLAs accused of cross‑voting in Monday’s election. In a nail‑biting finish, BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia and Congress’s Karamvir Singh Boudh were declared winners late Monday night.

Amid the turmoil, one of the three acting presidents of the Haryana Congress, Ram Kishan Gujjar, resigned from party membership and relinquished all posts and responsibilities on Tuesday. His wife is also a Congress MLA in Haryana.

Among the five legislators facing action are two women MLAs, two from the Mewat region, and one from Fatehabad district. Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda confirmed on Tuesday that the party has initiated proceedings but declined to reveal names, citing party principles.

“The Congress is aware of the five MLAs, and the party high command has been informed. Appropriate action will be taken against them,” Hooda said, clarifying that the anti‑defection law does not apply in this case.

“They did not betray the party; the betrayal was against the people who elected them. The names will come out once the party takes action. Some have already resigned, but resignation should come from the MLA concerned who deceived the public,” he added.

Congress general secretary in‑charge of Haryana, B K Hariprasad, told The Indian Express, “We will first issue show‑cause notices to the MLAs. Then we will wait for their response. If the explanation satisfies us, it is fine; otherwise, we will take action against them.”

In the 90‑member Haryana Assembly, two INLD MLAs abstained from voting on Monday, while four Congress votes were declared invalid. A BJP MLA’s vote was also invalidated for violating secrecy norms. Out of 83 valid votes, Bhatia secured 39 first‑preference votes, Boudh received 28, and BJP‑backed Independent Satish Nandal got 16.

Since second‑preference votes are also counted in Rajya Sabha elections, just one additional vote for Nandal could have changed the outcome. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini remarked, “Independent candidate Satish Nandal lost by just one vote.”

Saini added, “The Congress has no faith in its MLAs. They kept them captive and paraded them around. Four of their votes were cancelled and five crossed, amounting to nearly 25 per cent of their strength in the Assembly. Our candidate was only Sanjay Bhatia, who won. We supported the Independent candidate as well.”

He added, “When the returning officer did not listen to us, we approached the chief election commissioner and accepted his decision. The BJP respects the Constitution of Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar, but the Congress worked to undermine it.”

Hooda countered, saying, “From the beginning, we said one seat would go to the BJP and the other to the Congress, based on numerical strength. I was surprised when the BJP fielded its state vice-president Satish Nandal as an Independent. What was the intention behind it? Rahul ji has already explained how vote theft took place in the 2024 Assembly polls. With the same intention, a third candidate was fielded this time.”

He noted, “Until the election concluded at 4 pm on Monday, no issue was raised about the votes of Paramvir Singh or Bharat Singh Beniwal. If there was any concern, those votes should have been kept separately.”

Paramvir Singh insisted his vote was valid, saying, “My vote was absolutely fine; there was no error. (Cancelling it) is murder of democracy. This was an assault by the BJP on democracy. In every Rajya Sabha election, they try to get Congress votes cancelled.”