EC raises questions about Subhash Chandra’s Rajya Sabha win

Barely three months after Zee Media chairman Subash Chandra was elected to the upper house from Haryana, the Election Commission (EC) yesterday found Haryana Assembly secretary RK Nandal guilty of concealment and negligence in the election “ink row.”

A row had erupted on June 11 after the votes of 12 Members of the Legislative Assembly of Congress and its allies were declared invalid, as they were marked with a pen other than the sketch pen officially used for the voting process.

Union Minister Birendra Singh, Supreme Court advocate RK Anand and Chandra were in the fray for two Rajya Sabha seats. Singh was comfortably re-elected, while Chandra, an independent candidate supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Anand were in close fight.

Twelve votes all in favour of Anand, an independent candidate supported by the Congress Party and Indian National Lok Dal, were rejected. Anand had alleged that a different pen was placed in the voting room which led to the confusion. According to the rules, MLAs have to use a pen provided by the Vidhan Sabha staff, and Nandal claimed that he had duly “clarified the procedure” to the MLAs.

In a report sent to the state chief election officer Ankur Gupta on June 30, Nandal had stated that on polling day, BJP MLA Subash Barala “came out of the voting compartment with a ball pen in his hand, saying that one pen was lying in the voting compartment and another pen (was) tied with a thread.” The incorrect pen was then supposedly removed claimed Nandal.

On June 17, Anand had filed a police complaint against Chandra, Aseem Goel, the BJP MLA from Ambala amongst others and asked the police to book them under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.      

However, it not yet clear if the EC will call for a re-election or the cancellation of Chandra’s membership.