Cong loses OLC seat in RS

Though the OLC doesn8217;t have much significance, the embarrassment only further exposes the Congress8217;s poor strategy in Parliament at a time when it is desperately trying to consolidate its position as a serious Opposition party. Last week, it failed to bring cut motions in the Lok Sabha on subsidies and price rise as the Speaker8217;s ruling caught it unawares.

Being the single largest party in the Upper House 8212; it has a total of 60 MPs 8212; the Congress had confidently fielded Bairagi and Meena for three seats which fell vacant in the OLC after the retirement of some MPs in April this year. It hoped that with its own strength and with the help of its allies, it would manage to send both its candidates to the committee.

Interestingly, elections to the OLC were necessitated for the first time in recent memory because there were four candidates and three seats, the other two candidates being C Narayana Reddy nominated and Sarla Maheshwari CPI-M. According to Rajya Sabha sources, the general practice has been to send members to the committee on the basis of a consensus among all parties, obviating the need for an election.

Reddy, who was supported by the NDA, polled the maximum votes and was a clear winner in the first round itself. Reddy secured as many as 81 first preference votes, whereas the cut-off mark for being elected was 44. Maheshwari came a far second, getting only 38 first preference votes, but managed to win through in the second round on the basis of second preference votes.

Ironically, the problems came for the two Congress candidates. Bairagi managed only 30 first preferences, the other 24 of the total 54 members of the party present going to Meena. This made both of them go to the second round since they were much below the cut-off mark. But while Bairagi managed to scrape through on the basis of third preference votes, Meena was put out of contention since they were reduced to contesting each other.

8220;The reason for the fiasco was the obvious lack of support from our allies,8221; a senior Rajya Sabha MP admitted today, adding that care should have been taken to enlist their assistance before deciding to field two candidates. The AIADMK, TMC and RJD are among the party8217;s allies in the Upper House.

Party circles were also abuzz with speculation that while many of the MPs from its allied parties did not turn up for voting, others may have cast their votes elsewhere.