Kalmadi, in the fray as an Independent, pulled off a victory drawing the Independent MLAs votes and shocked Congress strongman Sharad Pawar who had camped in Mumbai for weeks to ensure Kalmadi's defeat. Pawar seemed taken aback at what happened and promised an inquiry into the Congress cross-voting.

Talking to The Indian Express Pawar said: "Definitely, there has been cross-voting on our side. This is not a small thing for us and is a setback for the party. Both my candidates had only requested for votes unlike the other side. We are going to go into the details and see why things went wrong."

The Congress had 78 votes plus the support of four SamajwadiParty votes and some Independents. This should have seen Pradhan through but he fell by the wayside culminating in a personal defeat for Sonia. Taking a dig at Pawar, Kalmadi said: "Pawar tried to bury me but his party has received a jolt. His strategy of fielding an extra candidate backfired and he must do some soul-searching. His sole purpose was to defeat me; now his job as leader of the opposition is in danger."

Apart from this, the other results were on more or less expected lines with BJP candidates Planning Commission deputy chairman Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, LM Singhvi (Rajasthan), Arun Shourie, Dinanath Mishra, DP Yadav and BSP chief Kanshi Ram (UP), Congress nominees noted advocate Kapil Sibal (Bihar), former Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra, MN Das, Ramchandra Kuntia (Orissa), Najma Heptulla (Maharashtra), Santosh Bagrodia, Durru Mian (Rajasthan), Shiv Sena candidates Pritish Nandy and Satish Pradhan (Maharashtra) and Shibu Soren (JMM-S) from Bihar making it to the Rajya Sabha.

Of the 32,the BJP and its allies the Shiv Sena and two Uttar Pradesh breakaway factions of the BSP and the Congress won 13, the Congress won eight, Samajwadi Party and RJD three each, CPI, JMM-S, BSP one each and Independents two.

But the story of the day was the Maharashtra upset. Pradhan was the only RS nominee personally chosen by Sonia for his connections to the family. Pradhan, a former Union Home Secretary and Arunachal Pradesh Governor, is also associated with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and his defeat must certainly raise questions within the Congress.

Already, doubts are being expressed about the precise role Pawar played in the poll. While one section sees Kalmadi's victory as a setback for the Maratha strongman, another section feels Pawar played a clever game.

Apparently, Pawar was unhappy at Pradhan's choice and put up Independent nominee Vijay Darda. Darda owns the Lokmat Times and heads the Indian Newspaper Society (INS). His victory is now being attributed to Pawar. Significantly, SitaramKesri campaigned for him at the last hour.

A feeling is growing that Pawar has made his point, by ensuring Pradhan's defeat, that he can't be ignored in party affairs and has enough clout to swing poll results either way. His nominee Najma Heptulla scraped through after three rounds in what will be her fourth RS term. This is being interpreted as the result of Pwar's displeasure at Pradhan's choice. However, Pawar denied he did anything wrong saying it is absurd to point fingers at him when he had worked hard for the party's victory.

The Congress might also have brought about the defeat of its own candidate for petty reasons, clearly indicating that the dissension is still not over.

For example, Heptullah was said to have complained to Sonia on Wednesday about the possibility of cross-voting by certain MLAs who had earlier been allotted to Pradhan. Moreover, even the MPCC executive was unhappy with Pradhan's candidature. The executives forced him to pay Rs 20,000 -- the price of a RS ticket as fixed bythe Pradesh Congress Committee, though Pradhan had not even applied for one -- asked to "become a primary member" of the Congress 24 hours before he filed his nomination papers and handed a membership book and ordered to recruit 25 members before the day was out to qualify for filing his nomination papers the next day. Unversed in the ways of politicians, Pradhan paid up the cash amount but senior leaders including.

However, good news for the Congress came from Orissa. The cross-voting went in its favour and the party gained a bonus third seat of MN Das even though it had votes for two wins.

In UP too, the Congress managed a seat on the SP's support. From UP, Arun Shourie, SP Gautam (BJP) Akhtar Hasan Rizwi (Loktantrik Congress), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Kanshi Ram and BJP-backed D.P. Yadav got through in the first round. Rama Shankar Kaushik and Munawwar Hussain (SP), Dinanath Mishra, BP Singhal and TN Chaturvedi (all BJP) got through in the second round. The BJP's bad tidings came from Rajasthan where itfailed to secure a victory for noted industrialist and outgoing RS member RP Modi after promising him surplus votes. Also losing was Kamal Morarka.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.