Chandigarh, March 19: Haryana Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda led a delegation of the Congress Legislature Party to meet Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh in Chandigarh on Thursday. The opposition leaders submitted a formal memorandum alleging “serious irregularities” during the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections, which they described as a mockery of democratic norms.
The Congress leadership asserted that the electoral process was systematically undermined to favor an independent candidate backed by the ruling BJP. While the 90-member assembly saw the BJP holding 48 seats and the Congress 37, the entry of Satish Nandal into the fray created a high-stakes contest. The opposition maintained that the candidacy was a calculated attempt to facilitate vote theft through political pressure.
Specific allegations in the memorandum were directed at the conduct of returning officer Pankaj Aggarwal. The Congress party stated that valid objections from their polling agents were ignored while four of their ballots were declared invalid. “The issue of vote theft we raised has been proven,” Hooda affirmed, describing the narrow victory of Congress candidate Karamvir Singh Boudh as a win for the people’s trust.
The delegation sought the Governor’s intervention to initiate disciplinary action against officials for what they termed partisan conduct. Despite five Congress MLAs reportedly engaging in cross-voting, the party declared that the mandate was ultimately protected. Hooda asserted that the BJP’s attempts to snatch the seat through manipulative tactics had failed to overturn the final result.
