Boost for Congress candidate in Madhya Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday allowed the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Satyadev Katare, currently undergoing medical treatment outside the state, to cast his vote in the June 11 Rajya Sabha polls through postal ballot, dealing a blow to the ruling BJP’s bid to send its third candidate to the Upper House.

The court rescinded the order by the returning officer, directing Mr Katare to be physically present to cast his vote.

In another development, a separate bench of the MP high court granted bail to Congress MLA Ramesh Patel, currently lodged in a jail in connection with a rape case, paving the way for him to participate in the June 11 RS polls.

The twin developments have bolstered the chances of MP’s Congress candidate Vivek Tankha in the biennial polls. The Congress, which has a strength of 57 MLAs, needs a single vote from outside the party to ensure the victory of its candidate. The BSP, with four legislators in the house, has already extended it support.

These events do not seem to have perturbed the BJP, which is sparing no efforts to garner nine votes that the party is falling short of, to ensure the victory of its third candidate, Vinod Gotia, who is contesting the polls as an independent nominee. “Our central party leadership decided not to give the Congress a walkover in the RS polls in any state. Hence, we have decided to field the third nominee as an independent candidate,” MP BJP chief Nand Kumar Chouhan said.