Chandigarh, March 15 -- The BJP seems to be hopeful of springing a surprise in the March 16 Rajya Sabha election for two seats from Haryana by altering the legislative arithmetic to secure victory for its state vice president and independent candidate, Satish Nandal. Three candidates - Sanjay Bhatia of the BJP, Karamvir Singh Boudh of the Congress and Satish Nandal as a BJP-backed Independent - are in the contest for the two Upper House berths that will fall vacant on April 9 following the end of the terms of BJP MPs, Ram Chander Jangra and Kiran Choudhry. In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 48 MLAs and the Congress has 37 MLAs. There are three Independents and two MLAs of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Ideally, the ruling BJP with 48 votes and the Congress with 37 votes should secure a seat each. However, by supporting the candidature of Satish Nandal, designated as one of the party's state vice presidents, the BJP seems to have made its intentions clear - to attempt an upset.Nandal's candidature was proposed by three independents and seven BJP MLAs. Electoral arithmetic suggests that the BJP-backed independent candidate cannot win unless Congress MLAs commit hara-kiri. The anti-defection law does not apply in Rajya Sabha polls. Political parties, though, can take disciplinary action against errant MLAs. "If the votes of a certain number of Congress MLAs get declared invalid, the number of valid votes would come down. Consequently, not only does the quota required to secure the win of a candidate come down, the value of Congress vote also drops,'' said a former election official. As per the formula devised for the Rajya Sabha polls, 31 votes each would be required for the two candidates to make it to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana. "The BJP-backed Independent can possibly win due to a combination of Congress MLAs cross-voting, abstaining, or their ballots being declared invalid," said a former assembly secretariat official. Nandal who contested the 2019 assembly election from Garhi-Sampla Kiloi constituency in Rohtak on a BJP symbol and lost to Congress leader, Bhupinder Singh Hooda by over 58,000 votes had told HT that he would reach out to both Congress and INLD MLAs to vote for him. When it was pointed out that if Congress MLAs extended support to him, their own party candidate would lose the poll, Nandal said, "See, it is an election. They (Congress) MLAs are also my brethren. Personal relations also matter a lot." The independent candidate would need much more than personal equations to win the second seat. While state BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli did not respond, state media coordinator, Haryana BJP, Sanjay Ahuja said, "We are quite hopeful of winning the second seat. But I am not aware of the actual dynamics at play,'' he said. INLD patron Prof Sampat Singh said that the Congress party does not seem to have confidence in its MLAs. "Packing them off to Himachal Pradesh with Rohtak MP, Deepender Hooda acting as a shepherd conveys a sense of insecurity. Not that this will help much," Prof Singh said. The INLD leader said that the track record of the state Congress is blemished as far as Rajya Sabha polls are concerned. "They have failed in the previous two such tests in 2016 and 2022 when BJP backed Independents won the Upper House poll,'' Prof Singh said.Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that all 37 party MLAs will vote for the Congress candidate. "In fact, the Congress candidate will win with more than 37 votes. The party candidate may get one or two additional votes," Hooda said after a CLP meeting on Friday. The CLP leader said that he and AICC in-charge of party affairs, BK Hariprasad would be the authorised agents of the party to whom the Congress MLAs would have to show their ballot paper after marking the first preference vote. Polling will be conducted between 9am and 4pm on March 16 and the counting of ballots will take place at 5pm the same day. The entire election process is to be completed by March 20....