Singed by repeated debacles in Rajya Sabha polls in the state, a fleet-footed Congress was able to stave off another upset in Haryana in a late-night poll battle in Chandigarh.

Candidates backed by the Congress lost in Bihar and Odisha after its MLAs either stayed away from voting or cross-voted in Monday's polls to the Upper House.

In Haryana, an Independent candidate linked to the BJP upset poll equations in the Assembly where the Congress and the BJP should have been able to elect an MP each unopposed. In 2022 and 2016, wealthy Independent candidates had defeated Congress nominees in a fog of invalid votes and cross-voting.

On Monday, however, after rival candidates claimed that two Congress MLAs had violated a rule that prevents an elector from displaying their vote to anyone besides their party's polling agents, Congress legal eagle Abhishek Manu Singhvi rushed to the Election Commission in Delhi with party MPs Naseer Hussain and Varun Chaudhry.

They demanded that the poll panel play the video recording of the voting in front of them and decide on the validity of the votes of their MLAs.

The EC hasn't publicly responded to the Congress. Counting finally resumed after midnight.

Eventually, four Congress votes and one BJP vote were deemed to be invalid. Five Congress MLAs appear to have voted for the Independent Satish Nandal.

Yet Congress's Karamveer Boudh was able to scrape through. BJP's Sanjay Bhatia was also elected.

Congress Haryana in-charge B.K. Hariprasad posted on X: "The BJP’s familiar playbook — buying legislators, intimidation, misuse of investigative agencies, and attempts to render constitutional institutions ineffective — was once again on display. This pattern of political manipulation, widely associated with the leadership of Prime Minister@narendramodi, Home Minister @AmitShah and the @BJP4India establishment, was firmly rejected in Haryana.

"Sensing defeat in the Rajya Sabha contest, the Modi-Shah combine reportedly went to extraordinary lengths, even deploying the Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat to Haryana. The attempt to defeat a Dalit community leader through the combined use of political pressure, financial muscle and cynical political manoeuvring has now been decisively exposed."

The incidents of Monday night led to a ruckus and a walkout by the Congress in the Haryana Assembly on Tuesday.