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| Coalition sweeps RS Polls; Farooq, Shafi are winners | | NC-PDP clash over erred voting | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 13: Following a stagy series of events and highest degree of caution among the ruling coalition and the main Opposition Peoples Democratic Party, former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and his senior party colleague Mohammad Shafi Uri were declared elected to the two seats Rajya Sabha the biennial elections were which were held here today.
The polling, which was held in the central hall of Legislative Assembly Complex, was marked by ruckus and heated exchange of arguments between some National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party members after one of the MLAs erred in voting.
In an effective electoral college of 86 members, the National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah bagged 27 votes and Mohammad Shafi Uri got 25 votes making it a clean sweep for the coalition in Rajya Sabha elections. The Opposition party PDP was not quite out of contest as its nominee Syed Altaf Hussain Bukhari lost narrowly to Mohammad Shafi as he was eliminated in third round of voting. Bukhari polled 23 votes. Ashok Vijay Gupta of the BJP polled only 11 votes and was eliminated in second and third rounds of voting.
From the voting pattern it appeared that two of the three members of the Panthers Party may have voted for the Peoples Democratic Party while one voted for the coalition nominees. The Panthers Party was the only party which had not issued any whip to its members. One independent MLA Ashwani Sharma of Bishnah abstained from voting. Though Ashwani was not available for comments sources close to him said that he was against identifying himself with any of the parties contesting Rajya Sabha elections.
As per the Returning Officer, Mr. Mohammad Ramzan, Dr. Abdullah polled 27 votes while as Mr. Uri got 25 votes in the third and final round of elections, held through Single Transferable Vote System.
The other contestants in the fray, Syed Mohammad Altaf of People's Democratic Party, who got 23 votes in the first round and independent candidate, Mr. Ashok Vijay Gupta, who got 11 votes in the first round, were eliminated in the third and second rounds respectively.
The elections were held under the supervision of Observer, Mr. B. R. Sharma, who is also the Chief Electoral Officer, J&K.
In the 86-Member Legislative Assembly, as many as 85 Members cast their votes while one Member abstained. One Assembly seat had fallen vacant due to the resignation by Dr. Farooq Abdullah, who had won from two Assembly constituencies.
There were interesting scenes of verbal clashes between members of NC and PDP during voting. It all erupted after National Conference MLA from Sonawari and a former deputy speaker of the house, Muhammad Akhbar Lone, entered into an altercation with Peer Mansoor Ahmad—MLA Shangus over the voting.
Reports said that Akhbar Lone sought re-voting after he committed some error in the first instance.
As Lone claimed the voting right for the second time, Peer passed some remarks including "don't you even know how to cast vote despite being the deputy speaker."
These remarks infuriated Lone and within a span of few seconds, both entered in a scuffle, eventually disrupting the proceeding of the voting.
Peer contested the claims of Lone to re-vote while the later maintained that there were clauses in the law book permitting the re-vote.
Later to maintain the decorum of the house, presiding office BR Sharma and the returning officer—secretary of the assembly—Muhammad Ramzan took the law-book to see whether there was any clause that permits the re-vote
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