Congress MP J.P. Agarwal greets senior leader Girija Vyas at Parliament House in New Delhi on Friday. — PTI

The Election Commission on Friday put on hold the counting for the Rajya Sabha elections for two vacant seats in Jharkhand after over `2 crores were allegedly seized from the relative of Independent candidate R.K. Agarwal. In a letter sent to the election officials, the poll panel has ordered that counting of votes “shall not be taken up” until a specific written clearance from the commission is received. The EC said it would grant clearance to declare the results after scrutinising the reports sent by the poll officials regarding “defect free” completion of counting and “disposal” of all objections in writing. The issue was raised in Parliament as well.
Late Friday evening, the Election Commission advised the President to countermand the election.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand deputy chief minister Hemant Soren appealed to the Election Commission to allow counting of votes, claiming that its coalition partner BJP voted for its candidate Sanjeev Kumar which has put to rest all reports of horse trading. The BJP, however, was divided over its decision to vote in the Rs. polls. The party had earlier decided to abstain from voting “in view of large scale horse trading and malpractices”.
Even the JVM (P) chief Babulal Marandi had met the CEC and raised the “horse trading” issue. Rajya Sabha members also expressed concern on Friday over the seizure of over `2 crores when CPI(M), JD(U), SAD, AIADMK and AGP raised this issue first during Question Hour and then again during Zero Hour.
The BJP top brass was divided on having allowed party MLAs in Jharkhand to vote for JMM’s candidate. Sources disclosed that though BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and a majority of leaders decided to give the nod to protect the alliance, a section, including the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and senior leader Yashwant Sinha were opposed to it.
Sources disclosed as part of an understanding reached between the JMM and BJP, MLAs from both the parties cast only their first preference votes.
“We asked the JMM leadership to ask its MLAs to cast their votes first and once we were convinced, our MLAs voted for Mr Kumar,” said a senior BJP leader. The BJP, it is learnt, was apprehensive that some JMM MLAs may vote for Mr Agarwal or another Independent candidate Pawan Kumar Dhoot.
JMM leader and Jharkhand deputy chief minister Hemant Soren had met BJP top brass urging them to rethink over their decision to abstain from voting.
When asked why did the party changed its earlier decision, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said “to end all possibilities of horse-trading and to strengthen democracy, our party MLAs in Jharkhand have voted for our ally JMM’s candidate Sanjeev Kumar. The decision was taken by our legislature party in Jharkhand.”
In Rajya Sabha, raising the cash seizure issue, CPI(M) member Sitaram Yechury, during Question Hour, said, “It is large-scale horse-trading that is happening.” Chairman Hamid Ansari, however, did not allow the members to raise the matter. The issue was again raised during Zero Hour. Hours before the Rs. polling for two seats in Jharkhand, income-tax officers and police recovered `2.15 crores in cash from a car near Namkum and detained two persons.