With fears of cross-voting looming large for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha, for which no party has clear numbers, the Congress has moved half of its 14 MLAs to a private resort in Bengaluru in a bid to keep its flock together.
According to party insiders, as many as nine Congress MLAs reached airport late on Thursday night along with Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das. The Congress’s strategy aims to prevent any chance of its MLAs being poached by rivals.
“The decision to take a group of the MLAs to Bengaluru was taken following a meeting of the PCC president with the Congress MLAs and following an internal discussion within the party at the highest level. As Karnataka has a Congress government, it’s decided to move the MLAs to Bengaluru. The remaining legislators may also be moved either to or New ,” said a Congress leader.
Congress legislature party leader Ramachandra Kadam accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of horse trading ahead of the polls. “The MLAs, who are in Bhubaneswar, will not indulge in cross voting,” said Kadam.
The eight MLAs and their families have been sent to the Wonderla Resort in the Bidadi region of the Bengaluru South district, where the Karnataka deputy CM is known to hold political sway. The Odisha MLAs are under the care of the Congress Karnataka DCM, sources said.
Among the MLAs are Mangu Khilla, Pabitra Saunta, Kadraka Appala Swamy, Rajan Ekka, and Prafulla Pradhan, sources said. All MLAs will return to Bhubaneswar as a group late Sunday evening ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha voting scheduled Monday.
“There are 14 people who arrived from Odisha and were taken to the resort. Eight of them are MLAs and the rest are family members,” a government source said.
Before moving the legislators to the Bengaluru resort, the Congress issued a three-line whip asking MLAs to remain present in Bhubaneswar and not leave headquarters from March 13 to 16.
BJD president and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik has also led efforts to chalk out the party’s strategy to keep its flock together. The BJD chief has written to party MLAs asking them to attend a two-hour meeting in the evening for three days from Friday at Naveen Niwas, his residence.
According to Patnaik’s letter to BJD MLAs, there will be a presentation and training programme for legislators on the Rajya Sabha poll procedure and process of casting votes.
“A contest in the Rajya Sabha election in Odisha is being held after 12 years. The last time, it was held in February 2014. There are many MLAs, who don’t know the process of casting votes and it’s important to impart training to them on the poll process and how to cast their votes so they won’t be rejected,” said a senior BJD leader.
A day before the poll, Patnaik is scheduled to chair a BJD legislature party meeting at his residence. BJD leaders said all the party’s 48 MLAs are united and will vote as per the decision of the party president.
BJD sources said the former chief minister does not want to leave any chance of keeping the legislature party united ahead of the key voting. Patnaik on Thursday met the party’s Basta MLA Subasini Jena at Naveen Niwas, whose husband and former BJD MP Rabindra Jena joined the BJP a day earlier.
Subasini said she met Patnaik to discuss matters related to her constituency and that she still considers him her leader. She did not directly respond to queries on whom she will vote for in the Rajya Sabha election.
The BJD and Congress have tied up for the fourth seat and fielded noted urologist Datteswar Hota as the “common candidate”. Famous hotelier and former Union minister Dilip Ray has thrown his hat into the race against Hota as an Independent candidate with support from the BJP.
Four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha will go to polls on March 16. Given the strength of various parties in the state Assembly, the BJP has enough MLAs to secure at least two Rajya Sabha seats, while the BJD has the numbers for one seat, with the fourth seat seemingly up for grabs. Currently, the BJP and BJD hold two seats each.
In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the ruling BJP has 79 MLAs and also enjoys the support of three Independent legislators. The main Opposition BJD has dropped to 48 MLAs after recently suspending two legislators for alleged anti-party activities. The Congress has 14 MLAs, while the CPI(M) has one. As per the Election Commission’s formula for electing Rajya Sabha MPs, a candidate needs at least 30 first-preference valid votes to win each seat.
