RS invalid votes row: Hooda accuses BJP of 'conspiring', demands EC probe

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is currently in the line of fire after independent R.K. Anand's defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls, on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of 'conspiring' to defeat the Congress' supported candidate.

"This is a conspiracy. 14 votes have been rejected and out of that 12 went to R.K. Anand," Hooda told ANI.

Noting that there were allegations of marking the ballot with a wrong pen, Hooda said that his party's MLAs were asked keep their pens and mobile phones outside when they went for voting.

"All of them (MLAs) cast their votes with the same pen. This can be ascertained by forensic science whether this was the same pen or it had been changed," he said.

Hooda urged Anand to file an election petition and also pitched for a probe by the Election Commission in this regard.

"If all the 12 votes were cast with the same pen then this hints at a conspiracy between the BJP and election machinery," he said.

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 47 MLAs. The Congress has 17 MLAs while the INLD has 19 in the House.