New Delhi: The sources said Bishnoi, who is the younger son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, is likely to resign as MLA before joining the BJP.Bishnoi too on Tuesday gave indication that he is joining the BJP.&nbsp;"August 4, 2022, 10.10 am," tweeted Bishnoi on Tuesday which was soon afterwards followed by another tweet by him, "Don't be afraid to start over. It's a chance to build something better this time."In recent weeks, Bishnoi had held meetings with top BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief J P Nadda and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Over a week ago, Bishnoi had met Nadda and&nbsp;Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Delhi and discussed political issues with them.On July 10, Bishnoi had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Nadda in Delhi.After meeting the BJP leaders, Bishnoi had heaped praise on them.The 53-year-old legislator was expelled by the Congress from all party positions last month.Since then, he has been warming up to the BJP.On his frequent meetings with BJP leaders in recent weeks and possibility that he may switch over to the party, former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda had maintained that the Adampur legislator is free to take his own decision, but he should resign as an MLA before doing so.Bishnoi, a four-time MLA and two-time MP, has been sulking ever since the Congress ignored him for the post of its Haryana unit chief during a revamp earlier this year.The party appointed Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan as its Haryana unit chief.After cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls in June, Bishnoi had posted a cryptic tweet saying, "I know how to crush a snake's hood. I do not leave the jungle in fear of snakes."On his expulsion from the party, Bishnoi had earlier said the Congress has rules for some leaders and exceptions for others. “Rules are applied selectively. Indiscipline has been repeatedly ignored in the past. In my case, I listened to my soul and acted on my morals.”The Congress, which is the main opposition party in Haryana, was assured of one Rajya Sabha seat by virtue of the number of MLAs it has in the 90-member assembly. However, Congress candidate Ajay Maken failed to secure the berth after Bishnoi cross-voted while the voteof an MLA was declared invalid.BJP's Krishan Lal Panwar and the saffron party-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma were elected to the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana.Bishnoi and his father Bhajan Lal had floated the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) in 2007 after the Congress handpicked Bhupinder Singh Hooda for the chief minister's post following the party's thumping victory in the assembly polls. The HJC later entered into a tie-up with the BJP and two other parties, who jointly contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Haryana.&nbsp;They were supposed to contest the assembly polls together as well but the alliance crumbled. Around six years ago, Bishnoi returned to the Congress fold. However, despite his return to the Congress, Bishnoi and Hooda never had warm relations.—PTI

Haryana's Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was expelled from all party positions by the Congress after he cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls in June, is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party on August 4, sources close to him said.

Expelled Haryana Congress MLA Bishnoi to finally join BJP on August 4

Haryana's Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was expelled from all party positions by the Congress after he cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls in June, is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party on August 4, sources close to him said.



Haryana

Haryana(The Hawk): A deputy superintendent of police investigating illegal stone-mining was killed Tuesday when a truck he signalled to stop in Haryana's Nuh district drove into him, officials said.Tauru DSP Surendra Singh had signalled a dumper-truck to halt to check documents. But the driver sped on, running over him.The officer's gunman and his driver jumped aside to safety, but the DSP was hit.He was rushed to hospital where doctors declared him dead, police said. Singh, along with his team, had gone to conduct raids to stop illegal mining in Aravalli hills in Pachgaon area near Tauru when he spotted the truck at 11.50 am.An officer said police teams are conducting raids to arrest the driver.Since 2015, about 50 complaints of illegal mining are registered every year in Nuh, officials said. Often, there are run-ins between police and members of the mining mafia.DSP Singh was recruited as assistant sub inspector in Haryana Police in 1994 and was to retire in a few months. He lived with family in Kurukshetra and hailed from Sarangpur village in Hisar district.—PTI

A deputy superintendent of police investigating illegal stone-mining was killed Tuesday when a truck he signalled to stop in Haryana's Nuh district drove into him, officials said.

 DSP crushed to death by mining mafia in Haryana's Nuh

Chandigarh: BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma wrote to the Election Commission of India, demanding the cancellation of votes of Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhry and BB Batra, due to "violation of the secrecy of votes in the Conduct of Election Rules 1961". Congress candidate from Haryana, Ajay Maken wrote to the Election Commission of India, stating that the demand raised by BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma be quashed and the results are declared at the earliest. The counting of votes in Haryana is currently on hold. BJP met the Election Commission this evening over Haryana and Maharashtra, asking that "this election be declared null and void on basis of broken rules of secrecy in voting" Of the total 90 members of the Haryana Assembly, 89 cast their votes, officials said at the end of the polling, which began at 9 am. In Haryana, the need for polls arises as three candidates have filed nominations for two Rajya Sabha seats. The Congress party has nominated senior leader Ajay Maken while the BJP has fielded former minister Krishan Lal Panwar. Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma is also in the fray. Both the BJP-JJP alliance and Congress legislators were shifted to resorts to slash possibilities of poaching. While the BJP-JJP alliance has lodged their MLAs in a resort in Chandigarh, the Congress leaders were moved to a resort in Delhi.The polling to elect the members of the Upper House of the Parliament on 16 Rajya Sabha seats spread across four states will take place today amid speculations of horse-trading and fears of cross-voting. Polling is set to begin at 9 am and will conclude at 4 pm. Notably, all 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed on Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently. However, polling for the 16 seats spread across states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka will be held today due to the number of candidates exceeding the seats. Some prominent leaders, whose fates will be decided at 5 pm when the counting of the votes will take place, include Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala and Mukul Wasnik.—ANI

BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma wrote to the Election Commission of India, demanding the cancellation of votes of Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhry and BB Batra, due to "violation of the secrecy of votes in the Conduct of Election Rules 1961".

Counting on hold in Haryana as BJP seeks cancellation of two Cong votes

Chandigarh: Polling for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana was underway here on Friday with Congress MLAs, who were lodged in a resort in Chattisgarh's Raipur due to fear of poaching, on their way to Chandigarh.The polling for the two seats will be held from 9 am to 4 pm and counting of votes will be taken up soon after, officials said.While the BJP with 40 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly has nine more than the 31 first preference votes required for a straight win, the contest has become keen for the second seat with the entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma, an Independent.He has the backing of BJP-JJP combine, the Independents, and Gopal Kanda, lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party.The BJP has fielded former Minister Krishan Lal Panwar, while Ajay Maken, a former Union minister, is the Congress nominee.The Congress has 31 members in the state Assembly, just enough to help its candidate win a seat. Its prospects could be in jeopardy in case of cross-voting.Haryana Congress MLAs, who were lodged in a resort in Raipur reached Delhi on Thursday evening. The Congress had shifted its MLAs to Raipur a week ago fearing poaching of its legislators.In the morning they started their journey by road and are reaching here in a bus, sources said.The ruling BJP-JJP MLAs, who had remained lodged at a resort here since Wednesday, had started reaching here to cast their votes.On Thursday, lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Singh Chautala declared his support to Kartikeya Sharma.Speaking to reporters in Delhi on Thursday evening, senior Congress leader Vivek Bansal, who is the party's Haryana affairs in-charge, exuded confidence that Maken will win comfortably.Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda also said the party candidate will win comfortably.Senior party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had been in Delhi for the past few days, reached here on Thursday eveningEarlier, Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, who is the MLA from Adampur in Hisar, did not go to Raipur as he was reportedly upset with the party for ignoring him in the recent reshuffle in its state unit.He had lobbied for the post of the state unit chief, which went to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan.On Wednesday, the BJP-JJP too had shifted their MLAs to a resort in Chandigarh. They were attending a "training session" in connection with the voting process, Haryana BJP chief O P Dhankar had said.Kartikeya Sharma is son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, who had also remained a minister in the erstwhile Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government.Venod Sharma had later floated his own outfit Jan Chetna Party.The media baron's father-in-law Kuldeep Sharma is a senior Congress leader and a former speaker of the state Assembly.The votes will be marked by a special pen provided by the Election Commission.Each MLA after casting his vote will hand over the pen to the officer deputed by the poll body, Haryana Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer for the polls R K Nandal told reporters.Nandal said that Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer and one central observer, who is Manipur's Chief Electoral Officer, will be present to oversee the poll process.In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 40 MLAs while the Congress has 31.The JJP, which is an ally of the BJP, has 10 legislators while the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party have one each and seven are independents.Two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana will fall vacant in August with the terms of media baron Subhash Chandra and BJP leader Dushyant Gautam expiring.—PTI

Polling for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana was underway here on Friday with Congress MLAs, who were lodged in a resort in Chattisgarh's Raipur due to fear of poaching, on their way to Chandigarh.

Polling for 2 RS seats in Haryana begins

Chandigrah: Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, Haryana MLAs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janata Party alliance have shifted to a resort in Chandigarh to discuss the strategy for the elections.The polls are slated to be held on June 10.Speaking to the reporters on Wednesday, Minister J P Dalal said that they have called all the MLAs to make the new MLAs understand on the polling procedure. "We've come here (Oberoi Sukhvilas Spa Resort, New Chandigarh) to understand the process of voting for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls. All technical details regarding the poll will be discussed as many MLAs are first-time MLAs. They have never taken part in the Rajya Sabha elections. So it will be decided who will vote for the BJP and for the Independent," he said.When asked about the Congress party which has shifted its MLAs to Chhattisgarh, the minister said that the worry of the party shows that they have factions within themselves. "Our win is certain as we have 40 votes for our party. Our alliance partner has 10 votes. I don't understand that Congress had 31 MLAs, yet they are worried. This shows that Congress is a party which is divided in sections. We are not scared. We are roaming freely. We are here only to discuss who has to cast vote for which candidate," Dalal said.He informed that the MLAs will stay at the resort till Thursday.—ANI

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, Haryana MLAs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janata Party alliance have shifted to a resort in Chandigarh to discuss the strategy for the elections.

BJP-JJP MLAs in Haryana shifted to resort ahead of Rajya Sabha polls

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls, Haryana MLAs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janata Party alliance have shifted to a resort in Chandigarh to discuss the strategy for the elections.

