CPI(ML)L has dismissed the Congress’ allegation of cross voting in the Jharkhand Rajya Sabha elections as a “malicious lie.” In a terse letter, Bhattacharya said they were "shocked" to see that the Congress is blaming its MLAs for the defeat of Congress candidate Jha in the Rajya Sabha elections on Thursday.
"This is a malicious lie. Both our MLAs voted for Jha as planned in the meeting of opposition MLAs. Our polling agents duly verified the votes before the ballots were cast," he said, expressing "strong protest against the wholly unfounded and malicious propaganda" against their lawmakers and the "attempted tarnishing" of the party's image.
In a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the party’s two MLAs voted for Congress candidate Pranav Kumar Verma as decided by the INDIA bloc. He said both legislators showed their marked ballots to authorised polling agents before casting their votes.
The Congress made the allegations after its candidate lost despite the INDIA bloc’s numerical strength in the Assembly. Jharkhand Congress in charge K.Raju claimed CPI(ML)L and the RJD had “betrayed” the alliance.
"RJD and CPIML)L betrayed us. They didn’t vote for us, and that's why we lost." K. Raju alleged.
Rejecting the charge, Bhattacharya urged the Congress not to make “baseless and unverified” allegations against allies.
“Before pointing fingers at others, larger parties should first look within. Those making such statements to protect their party or leadership are damaging the credibility of CPI(ML) and all those legislators who voted in good faith for the Congress candidate. This is not merely an attempt to malign CPI(ML), but an effort that harms the image of the entire INDIA alliance,” CPI(ML)L said in a post on X on Thursday.
The row erupted after NDA backed Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani won the Rajya Sabha election.
