Two men were arrested in Karnataka on Sunday for allegedly attempting to bribe MLAs from the Odisha unit of the Congress a day ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, the Hindustan Times reported.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to influence the legislators as part of “Operation Lotus” by offering them Rs 5 crore to cross-vote in favour of a candidate backed by the party, PTI reported.
“Operation Lotus” refers to the alleged attempts by the BJP to orchestrate defections and poach legislators from Opposition parties by offering them bribes and other incentives.
On Thursday, eight Congress MLAs from Odisha were moved to a resort near Bengaluru amid concerns about possible cross-voting in the election for four Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
Shivakumar added that two of the four persons allegedly involved in Sunday’s incident were apprehended at the resort, PTI reported.
Odisha Congress leader Ashok Kumar Das filed a complaint with the Bidadi police station in Karnataka naming the four persons as Birendra Prasad, Suresh, Ajit Kumar Sahu and Simachal Mohakud, the Hindustan Times reported.
Das also alleged that when the legislators rejected the alleged offer of Rs 5 crore each to cross-vote in the Rajya Sabha election, the individuals threatened to kill them if they returned to Odisha, India Today reported.
The BJP rejected the allegations.
Anil Biswal, a spokesperson for the party in Odisha, described the claims as “baseless” and said they had been made after the Congress realised it was facing defeat in the Rajya Sabha elections, the Hindustan Times reported.
“The Congress has a habit of cross-voting,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha are due to fall vacant on April 2 and elections are being held on Monday to fill them. In total, polls for 37 Rajya Sabha seats in 10 states are scheduled for the same day.
In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs and the support of three Independents, giving it 82 votes. The Biju Janata Dal has 50 MLAs, though two are currently under suspension, leaving it with 48 effective votes. The Congress has 14 MLAs and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has one.
Under the voting formula for Rajya Sabha elections, a candidate requires at least 30 first-preference votes to win.
BJD, Congress issue showcause notice to 3 MLAs
The Opposition BJD and the Congress on Sunday issued showcause notices to three MLAs for allegedly violating party whips ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, PTI reported.
The BJD issued showcause notices to two MLAs: Chakramani Kanhar, who represents the Baliguda constituency, and Naba Kishor Mallick, the legislator from Jayadev.
In a statement on Sunday, BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik said that the two MLAs had been absent from meetings convened by the party leadership for the past three days, the news agency reported.
The Congress also asked its MLA from Mohana, Dasarathi Gomango, to present himself before the party.
In the showcause notice, the Congress Disciplinary Committee said that Gomango had remained incommunicado and accused him of “deliberately going into hiding at a critical juncture, raising suspicions of potential cross-voting or defection that could undermine the party’s strategic alliance”, PTI reported.
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