Sanjay Bhatia (BJP) and Karmvir Singh Baudh (Congress) emerge victorious after a ballot drama involving invalid votes, cross-voting, and a last-minute Election Commission ruling that decided the outcome.
Final Vote Count
| Candidate | Party | Votes Received | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sanjay Bhatia | BJP | 28.66 | ✔ WON |
| Karmvir Singh Baudh | Congress | 28.00 | ✔ WON |
| Satish Nandal | Independent (BJP VP) | 26.34 | ✘ LOST |
CHANDIGARH — Results declared nearly nine hours after polling concluded gave Haryana’s two contested Rajya Sabha seats to one candidate each from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress, with BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia and Congress’s Karmvir Singh Baudh declared elected. The third candidate in the race, Satish Nandal — BJP’s State Vice President who filed nominations as an independent — fell agonisingly short, losing by a single vote after a dramatic sequence of ballot controversies, cross-voting revelations, and Election Commission rulings that kept political operatives on edge until well past midnight.
Of the 90 members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly, 88 exercised their franchise. The two MLAs who abstained were from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which declared it would not extend support to either major party, citing widespread public disillusionment with both the BJP and the Congress.
The Vote That Decided Everything
The most pivotal moment of the entire election was a ruling by the Election Commission on the ballot cast by Congress MLA Bharat Singh Beniwal of Ellenabad. The BJP had lodged a formal complaint demanding that Beniwal’s vote be invalidated after video footage appeared to show him handing his ballot paper to a party agent after marking it — a direct violation of Rules 39(AA) and 70 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. Under those provisions, a legislator may show only the marked portion of the ballot to an authorised agent, but under no circumstances may the paper be relinquished.
The Election Commission, after reviewing the footage, chose to uphold Beniwal’s vote. The consequence of that decision was decisive. A simple arithmetic exercise demonstrates the stakes: had Beniwal’s vote been struck down, the effective vote pool would have dropped to 82, requiring 27.33 votes to secure election. After BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia claimed his quota, the residual BJP votes transferred to Nandal would have given him 27.66 votes — enough to narrowly edge out Baudh, who would have been left with only 27 votes and thus defeated. Beniwal’s preserved ballot was, in the most literal sense, the margin of Baudh’s victory.
“The public will deal with those who engaged in cross-voting.” — Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Leader of the Opposition
Invalid Votes and the Ballot Secrecy Controversy
A total of five votes were declared invalid during the counting process — four belonging to the Congress and one to the BJP. Congress MLA Paramvir Singh of Tohana was among those whose vote was nullified, after he was found to have unfolded his ballot paper in contravention of established electoral procedure.
After polls closed at 4:00 PM, the BJP raised allegations against two Congress MLAs for breaching ballot secrecy, while the Congress counter-alleged that BJP cabinet minister Anil Vij had committed the same offence. Following an inquiry, the Election Commission ruled that both Vij’s and Beniwal’s votes were valid. The Commission’s finding regarding Paramvir Singh, however, went the other way.
The Congress party subsequently filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission against Returning Officer Pankaj Agarwal, accusing him of conducting proceedings with a pro-government bias. According to Congress, complaints were registered against its MLAs only after they had already cast their votes and no contemporaneous objections had been raised, an anomaly the party alleged was inconsistent with impartial administration. Congress further claimed that the Returning Officer refused to share video evidence with the party despite its requests.
Cross-Voting: Five Congress MLAs Break Ranks
Five Congress MLAs voted against the official party line, a development that plunged the Congress camp into visible distress as counting progressed into the night. Opposition Leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda declined to name the legislators publicly, saying only that the electorate would be the ultimate judge of their conduct. Congress in-charge B.K. Hariprasad was considerably more blunt, branding the cross-voters as “traitors” and warning they would face consequences.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, commenting on the episode, said he had never witnessed a scenario in which a political party appeared to distrust its own legislators so profoundly, describing reports of Congress shuttling its MLAs between locations to ensure compliance as an extraordinary spectacle. He also stated that the INLD’s abstention had indirectly aided the Congress, noting that the independent candidate — his own party’s state vice president — lost by just one vote.
“For the first time in history, I have witnessed a party that lacked faith in its own legislators.” — Nayab Singh Saini, Chief Minister of Haryana
INLD’s Abstention: Principled Stand or Kingmaker’s Gambit?
INLD legislators Aditya Devi Lal and Arjun Chautala were the two MLAs who chose not to cast their votes. Party leader Abhay Singh Chautala framed the decision as a reflection of popular sentiment, arguing that the people of Haryana have grown disillusioned with both established parties and that the INLD, in good conscience, could not have voted for either. Critics from the ruling BJP, however, characterised the abstention as a de facto gift to the Congress, pointing out that had the INLD voted for Nandal, the independent candidate’s fortunes could have been transformed.
Profiles: The Newly Elected Members
Sanjay Bhatia (BJP) — Bhatia won the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 general elections. Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he ceded the Karnal seat to former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and thereafter channelled his energies into party organisational work. The central BJP leadership assigned him prominent responsibilities in election management in Bihar and several other states, a role that evidently positioned him favourably for the Rajya Sabha nomination.
Karmvir Singh Baudh (Congress) — A retired officer from the Haryana Civil Secretariat, where he served as an Administrative Officer, Baudh stepped down from government service four years ago. He has since been active in party circles, serving as the Congress in-charge for Himachal Pradesh and as a National Coordinator for the party’s SC Cell. He has also indicated his intention to contest the forthcoming state assembly elections from the Mullana constituency.
Counting Chaos: Congress Leaders on Edge Until Midnight
Counting began around 10:25 PM. The mood in the Congress tent darkened immediately upon the opening of ballot boxes, when it became apparent that four of the party’s votes had been struck as invalid. Hooda rushed back to the counting venue, and a palpable tension gripped the Congress benches. For a period, defeat appeared plausible — and the crestfallen expressions on the faces of several MLAs fuelled speculation accordingly. It was only when the final tally was computed and Baudh’s narrow margin confirmed that the party allowed itself to exhale.
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