In a closely watched contest for two Rajya Sabha seats of Haryana, the ruling BJP and the main opposition — the Congress — won one seat each in the election that had all the trappings of a thriller — invalid votes, behind-the-scene manipulations, cross-voting, a party that decided to abstain from voting and a result that went down to the wire.Former MP Sanjay Bhatia of the BJP and Dalit activist Karamvir Boudh of the Congress were declared winners through the preferential vote system after counting concluded past 1.30 am. They were declared winners after securing 28 votes each while Independent candidate Satish Nandal, backed by the BJP, lost by a narrow margin, getting 27 votes. He required 27.66 votes. This is likely to have a fallout for the INLD which, despite having two votes, decided to abstain from voting.The total number of votes was reduced to 83 in the 90-member House after two INLD MLAs abstained from voting and five votes (BJP 1, Congress 4) were declared invalid. This reduced the number of votes required for a win by each candidate to 28.The result upset the calculations of the BJP as its party vice-president, who contested the poll as an Independent, lost one vote after it was declared invalid, while the Congress managed to scrape through despite five of its MLAs cross-voting in favour of the BJP and four of its votes being declared invalid.While the Congress was upbeat after the results and in a celebratory mode for having virtually “snatched” the victory from the Independent, the result exposed the factionalism within the party, which surfaced as cross-voting that benefited the rival candidate.The BJP also was content in having won one seat and “exposing” the division in the Congress that allowed its second candidate to end up very close to the finish line, indicating its plan worked. Haryana Sports Minister Gaurav Gautam reacted that had the INLD participated, the outcome could have been different, while Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini accused the INLD of acting like a “B team” of the Congress by abstaining, indicating that all is not well between the two parties after this defeat.The Congress alleged that four of its MLAs’ votes were “illegally” declared invalid and that the returning officer was acting as a BJP poll agent. The party’s general secretary in-charge of Haryana, BK Hariprasad, stated that the victory of the Congress had defeated all planning of the BJP to sabotage the election. “We will take action against those who cross-voted. They have betrayed the party and the people who elected them,” he said.With the cross-voters of the Congress camp standing exposed following the RS poll, sources in the BJP said preparations were afoot to take them into the party fold.It is learnt that two Muslim MLAs, two women MLAs and one MLA from a reserved seat were among the cross-voters, representing both main factions within the Congress.Prior to the counting, complaints regarding violations of vote secrecy were filed with the returning officer, who referred them to the Election Commission of India, delaying the count by over five hours. One vote of Congress MLA Paramvir Singh was ultimately declared invalid.Hariprasad alleged attempts to lure Congress MLAs with monetary inducements, claiming three BJP leaders repeatedly contacted them and even followed them to Himachal Pradesh but the Congress legislators resisted these efforts.He warned that the Congress MLAs involved in cross-voting would be issued show-cause notices and held accountable within the party, while noting that following the win in the Rajya Sabha election, the party had now decided not to pursue the complaint of bribe offers to the Congress MLAs given to the Himachal Pradesh police.Meanwhile, the BJP tried to harp on the infighting in the Congress which resulted in cross-voting. “This was a very interesting election where the Congress did not trust its own MLAs and moved them to Himachal Pradesh. They kept shifting them every hour. Their senior leaders, including the general secretary in-charge of the state, became a polling agent,” said CM Saini.He took a swipe at the INLD for indirectly helping the Congress by staying away from voting. “If the INLD did not want to support the BJP, it could have supported the Independent candidate. However, the party, by deciding to abstain, helped the Congress to become its ‘B team’,” said Saini.