Haryana RS Elections: Shalley Chaudhary To Mohammad Israel, Congress MLAs Who Cross-Voted For BJP Revealed

Last Updated:March 18, 2026, 12:50 IST

Announcing their names, Haryana Congress in-charge BK Hariprasad said the party’s disciplinary committee has been informed and show-cause notices will be sent to these MLAs soon

The Congress on Wednesday revealed the names of MLAs who cross-voted in favour of the BJP in Haryana Rajya Sabha elections — Shalley Chaudhary from Naraingarh, Mohammad Ilyas from Punahana, Mohammad Israel from Hathin, and Renu Bala from Sadhaura.

Announcing their names, Haryana Congress in-charge BK Hariprasad said the party’s disciplinary committee has been informed and show-cause notices will be sent to these MLAs soon.

Polling for two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana was held on Monday. BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia won one seat comfortably, while Congress candidate Karamvir Singh Boudh secured the other in a close contest against Independent candidate Satish Nandal.

Boudh’s victory by a narrow margin came amid allegations that five Congress candidates allegedly cross-voted. Of the five votes declared invalid by the Returning Officer, four were reportedly cast by Congress legislators.

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“The MLAs did not betray the party or me, but the people who elected them," former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly, said on Tuesday. He had then refused to revealed the names.

Ahead of the polls, Congress MLAs were shifted to Himachal Pradesh to prevent defections and returned to Chandigarh on Monday morning to cast their votes.

While the party celebrated winning one seat, the cross-voting episode exposed internal rifts within the party’s Haryana unit, which has long been plagued by factionalism.

Despite having adequate numbers, failure to secure the one seat that the Congress eventually won would have dealt a major blow to the party in Haryana and to its veteran leader Hooda, who was at the forefront of keeping the flock together.

A repeat of history was something the opposition party could ill afford in the state, where it has been out of power since 2014.

In the 2022 Rajya Sabha polls, its candidate Ajay Maken lost to the BJP-JJP-backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma despite having the required strength of 31 votes. The then Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi — now with the BJP — cross-voted while another vote was declared invalid.

In 2016, the votes of 14 Congress MLAs were declared invalid, leading to the loss of a party-backed Independent candidate who was otherwise expected to win.

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