Hry Cong MLAs likely to be moved to Chhattisgarh to avoid poaching

New June 1 (IANS) The Congress in Haryana is mulling over the idea of moving all the party MLAs to Chhattisgarh to protect them from poaching by the BJP-backed Independent candidate ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled on June 10.

The Congress was caught by surprise after the BJP backed an Independent candidate for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana going to the polls, upsetting its calculations of winning without any contest.

Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma is likely to get votes from the JJP, apart from the surplus BJP votes.

Congress' headache has increased after Kuldeep Bishnoi did not attend the recent party MLA's meeting. The Congress has a strength of 31 votes in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, and a difference of a single vote can alter its equations.

Kartikeya Sharma is the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma and Ambala Mayor Shakti Rani Sharma. He is also the son-in-law of former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, a Congress veteran, while Venod Sharma has left the party. Kartikeya, 41, is also the managing director of ITV Network which runs news channels such as NewsX.

The Congress has fielded Ajay Maken from Haryana, while in Rajasthan its candidates are Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Pramod Tiwari.

Dissent is already brewing in these two states as many party leaders are not happy with 'outsiders' contesting polls from their states, and both Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot will face a tough task in keeping their MLAs together in Haryana and Rajasthan, respectively.

While the Congress in Rajasthan is taking take its MLAs to Udaipur from June 3 onwards after the conclusion of its two-day workshop (on June 1 and 2), the BJP shall hold an MLAs meeting on June 5 and will thereafter take them to a Jaipur hotel for political camping.

Rajasthan Congress MLAs will be taken to Udaipur where they will stay at the same hotel where the party's Chintan Shivir was organised last month, said sources.