*Balbir wins, Randhawa makes it to LC through lottery
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 17: Ruling PDP today suffered major embarrassment at the hands of none other but its own coalition partner, the BJP when it lost what was considered to be the safe seat for the party in the Legislative Council elections with BJP and Opposition Congress candidates emerging victorious in the biennial election held for two seats of Jammu division today.
It was a clear violation of ‘coalition dharma’ with BJP taking the vote of Independent MLA from Zanskar Sayed Mohammad Bakir Rizvi, who was earlier with the PDP, by assuring him Cabinet berth in the next reshuffle. This reduced PDP’s 30 votes to 29 and raised BJP’s 28 votes to 29, a result of which Abdul Qayoom Dar (PDP) and Vikram Randhawa (BJP) were tied at 29 votes each while Congress candidate Thakur Balbir Singh, backed by National Conference, secured 31 votes to safely win the first seat with the help of four Independents and Others.
As the second seat was tied at 29, Returning Officer, Mohammad Ramzan opted for draw of lots in which BJP’s Randhawa won.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shantmanu, who was Election Commission observer for the Legislative Council elections, told the Excelsior that as per the draw of lots, two names are written on the slips and anyone is asked to pick up one. The person, whose name comes in the slip, is rejected and the other one is declared as winner.
Shantmanu said the Election Commission’s order declaring Balbir Singh and Vikram Randhawa as the winners has been received and both of them will be given victory certificates tomorrow.
All 89 MLAs (87 elected plus two nominated women) cast their votes from 9 am to 4 pm after which the counting was taken up.
Very credible and authentic inputs available with the Excelsior revealed that four Independents and Others including MY Tarigami (CPM), Hakim Mohammad Yasin (PDF), Pawan Gupta (Udhampur) and Engineer Rashid (Langate) voted for Congress-National Conference joint candidate Thakur Balbir Singh, taking his votes from 27 (NC 15 and Congress 12) to 31, making him a clear winner. Only 30 out of 89 votes were required for the win as election was being held on two seats of Jammu division and there were three candidates in the fray.
The PDP, which had confirmed block of 30 MLAs to make its candidate Abdul Qayoom Dar victorious, suffered a jolt when Independent MLA from Zanskar (Kargil district) Sayed Mohammad Bakir Rizvi opted out of the block in the middle of voting today after speaking to a senior leader of the State BJP unit, who assured him Cabinet berth in the next reshuffle after which he voted for the BJP.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the PDP came to know at 11.30 am today that Independent MLA from Zanskar Sayed Mohammad Bakir Rizvi, who was with the PDP since formation of the Government and had been made Vice Chairperson of a Board with Minister of State status, has parted ways with the PDP and sided with the BJP.
Sources said the PDP Ministers spoke to Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh and State BJP chief Sat Sharma CA and wanted one of the BJP MLA to cast his vote for the PDP to make its candidate victorious as per the PDP-BJP agreement under which the PDP nominee Abdul Qayoom Dar had to be given safe passage to the Council while only remaining votes were to be polled to Randhawa.
Sources said by then BJP Doda MLA Shakti Raj Parihar only was left to cast his vote while all others had already voted. Parihar was then called to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s chamber, where senior PDP and BJP Ministers and leaders were present. It was unanimously decided that to maintain ‘coalition dharma’ and honour PDP-BJP agreement, Parihar will vote the PDP candidate to make him victorious.
“But what happened later is a mystery,” sources pointed out and noted that the BJP, like other parties, had issued whip to all its MLAs, which can’t be defied. There were also reports that one of the BJP Ministers didn’t show his vote to the Election Agents as it was mandatory under the law due to open ballot system. However, the senior party leaders declined to comment.
The PDP has suffered major embarrassment as it could win only one out of six seats of Legislative Council while its ally BJP got 3. NC and Congress got one each.
The PDP block of 30 votes comprised 28 elected MLAs of the party, nominated woman MLA Anjum Fazili and Syed Mohammad Bakir Rizvi, who had been appointed Vice Chairperson of a Board with the status of Minister of State from the PDP quota. The PDP had been allotted 30 out of 58 confirmed votes with PDP-BJP alliance to ensure victory of Abdul Qayoom Dar as BJP had already won two seats uncontested while PDP had only one. Another seat had gone to Opposition National Conference. These four seats were decided uncontested on April 3.
BJP candidate Vikram Randhawa had block of 28 votes including 25 elected MLAs of the party, nominated woman MLA Priya Sethi and two MLAs of People’s Conference.
While the flock of BJP MLAs remained intact, Rizvi revolted against the PDP and voted for the BJP taking votes of both the Alliance partners to 29 each after which Randhawa won through draw of lots while Dar lost.
Bakir Rizvi confirmed to the Excelsior on telephone that he voted for the BJP.
“I had repeatedly been asking the PDP to develop my remote, backward and far flung constituency of Zanskar but the leadership paid no heed. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti announced package and projects for Nobra (Leh district) segment but ignored Zanskar. No measures were taken to promote tourism in my segment. I aired my grievances before the PDP leadership but they told me that my vote was not required and they will win the seat even without me,” Rizvi said, adding since the BJP was in power at the Centre, it assured development of Zanskar and “I voted for them”.
Sources, however, said that Bakir Rizvi was bargaining for Cabinet berth in the Council of Ministry with PDP but when the party gave him no categorical assurance, he approached a senior State BJP leader in the middle of voting today. The BJP didn’t inform the PDP of big political development and assured Rizvi of Cabinet berth and development of his constituency in lieu of his vote.
The shift of Rizvi’s vote gave BJP an extra seat in the Legislative Council at the cost of PDP.
When approached for comments, BJP State president Sat Sharma CA said one Independent candidate has voted for the BJP. However, he didn’t comment further and declined to reveale identity of the MLA, who voted for the BJP. He said as the State party president it was his duty to expand the party base and he was happy that the BJP has won three out of six seats of the Upper House.
Sources said the BJP victory apart, it was a complete failure of the PDP leadership, which was handling the election strategy as they, till the last moment, were unable to know that Rizvi has deserted them and sided with the BJP.
“The PDP was confident of getting 30 votes though Rizvi had earlier also informed PDP’s two senior Ministers about his grievances,” sources said, adding that PDP came to know of Rizvi’s desertion in the middle of voting.
The PDP had been allotted safe seat of Jammu while BJP had fielded its candidate for the sake of contest. But the reverse happened. While the BJP won the seat, the PDP lost, albeit through the lottery system.
Though the BJP won the seat, it was unable to woo any of the four Independents and Others including MY Tarigami, Hakim Mohammad Yasin, Pawan Gupta and Engineer Rashid, all of whom voted for National Conference-backed-Congress candidate Thakur Balbir Singh, making him a clear winner with 31 votes though NC-Congress together had 27 MLAs only (NC 15 and Congress 12).
This was for the second time in the past decade when a candidate won the Upper House election through lottery. In 2009, NC candidate Vijay Bakaya and Congress nominee Ghulam Nabi Monga were tied. Bakaya had won through the lottery. Monga had become the MLC later.
PCC (I) chief GA Mir said the victory of Congress nominee was made possible by the like-minded MLAs, who sided with the “secular coalition”.
National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana said the coalition victory on two out of six seats of the Council was a big achievement especially as it comes after splendid victory of NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah in Lok Sabha by-poll for Srinagar seat.
Biennial election was to be held on six seats of the Legislative Council today but four seats were decided uncontested on April 3, the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers. Of four seats, BJP had won two-G L Raina alias Ajay Bharti from Kashmir and Pardeep Sharma from Poonch Reserved, PDP had captured one-Yasir Reshi from Kashmir while fourth seat had gone to National Conference-Age Syed Mehmood Al Mousvi from Kashmir. With today’s seats going in favour of BJP and Congress, BJP has emerged major beneficiary with three seats while PDP, NC and Congress got only one each.
The Legislative Council has total strength of 36. However, it’s present strength is 34 in view of two vacancies from the Urban Local Bodies. Out of 34, PDP-BJP Alliance now has 22 seats (PDP 11 and BJP 11) while Opposition National Conference and Congress have 12 (NC 6 and Congress 6).
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