CHANDIGARH India: Jagjit Singh Arora and H.S. Hanspal ruling Akali Dal and Congress (i) candidates respectively were declared elected to the Rajya Sabha for two seats from Punjab. Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann a former LPS officer detained at Bhagalpur Bihar who was fielded by the Akali Dal Dissidents and Mr. Satwant Singh an independent candidate lost the election. General Arora polled 50 first preference votes three more than the known strength of the ruling party. Mr. Hanspal received 35 first preference votes though the number of Congress (I) M.L.As is 31 Mr. Manns tally was 27 votes the number corresponding to the original strength of the Dissidents. Mr. Mann and Mr. Hanspal also got fifteen and six second preference votes respectively. Though the election was held through a secret ballot who voted for whom was openly discussed in the Vigyan Bhawan the venue of the polling. Ina surprise move five MLAs of the B.J.P which had declared yesterday that it was not supposed to support two Akali candidates caste their first preference votes to Mr. Arora and second preference votes to Mr. Hanspal. According to a report this was in violation of the directive of BJP High command conveyed to the Punjab leadership that they should caste their first vote to the Congress (I) candidate. It is believed that Mr. Hanspal was also supported by the three of the four independents and the: lone C.P.I M.L.A. The fourth independent M.L.A Mr. Karnail Singh Doad and the lone Janata Party MLA cast their votes for Mr. Arora. Besides the two of the five B.J.P MLAS second preference votes received by Mr. Hanspal third is believed to be of Mr. Doad. The fifteen second preference votes cast and received by Mr. Mannare believed to be of the ruling Akali Dal MLAs. The pattern of voting though of secondary importance lent weight to the view that the Dissidents have made inroads into the ruling party influencing one third of its total membership of 47 including one former Dissident. Two of the 115 votes cast were declared invalid. Mr. Satwant Singh independent candidate polled one vote. The ruling Akali Dal who had hoped to establish its majority in Vidhan Sabha by polling fifty eight votes failed to do so On the contrary its known strength of forty-seven went down by four as it received the support of seven non-Akali members five of the B.J.P one of the Janata Party and one independent which was more or less declared the Speaker in his account. The ruling party however claimed that the two invalid votes and one polled by Mr. Satwant Singh were lost to its candidate by mistake. Ruling Akali Dal has also been claiming that all the four independents voted for Mr. Arora. The losses of the four votes in the casting of fifteen second preference votes in favor of Mr. Mann are considered to be an ominous development for the Barnala government. The ruling Akali Dal sources said that at party MLAs meeting last night that its members did not cast second preference votes but fifteen of them did cast for Mr Mann How near was Mr. Mann to win is clear from the quota vote situation computed after the 2nd preference votes In this competition Mr. Arora got 50 Mr. Hanspal 38.48 and Mr. Mann 35.70 votes Mr. Mann would have won if the ruling party had transferred to him at least eight by preference surplus votes. This evidently was not done as B.J.P then might not have supported the ruling party B.J.P took some time in finally arriving at the decision to support Mr. Arora Three of the five B.J.P members it is said wanted the party to support the ruling Akali Dal candidate as they could not come around to the view that they should support Congress (I) and the die was cast in favor of Mr Arora.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 4, 1986
