Communist Party of India (M) in Rajasthan on Monday suspended its MLA Balwan Poonia from the party for a year for disobeying party directions in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in the state.
In the RS elections on three seats from the state, Congress’ KC Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi, and BJP’s Rajendra Gehlot won, while the BJP’s second candidate Onkar Singh Lakhawat lost.
The CPI (M) had asked its both MLAs — Balwan Poonia and Girdhari Lal — to vote against the BJP during the June 19 polls only if there are chances of the victory of its second candidate, CPI (M) sources said on Monday.
?But our MLA Balwan Poonia cast his vote though it was apparent that both Congress candidates are going to win comfortably and BJP’s extra candidate is going to lose. In such a situation, there are was no need for Poonia to cast his vote,? a party source said.
Poonia, the MLA from Bhardra (Hanumangarh) constituency, voted in support of the Congress candidate, while Girdhari Lal did not cast his vote.
“Despite knowing well that they do not have the numbers to win a second seat, the BJP fielded an extra candidate. We had asked our MLAs not to vote for any party unless the second BJP candidate seemed to be in the competition,” the source said.
Poonia has been suspended from the party for one year on charges of disobeying party directions, the source added.
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