Odisha Congress to pursue alleged attempts to bribe its MLAs in Karnataka before Rajya Sabha election

A day after suspending its three MLAs who cross-voted by going against party whip, Odisha Congress on Wednesday said it would take attempts to bribe its MLAs in Karnataka ahead of Rajya Sabha elections to logical conclusion.

“Four persons were arrested by Karnataka police from a resort where Congress MLAs were put up ahead of Rajya Sabha elections. Their activities were suspicious. Prima facie evidence suggest that they were sent to hotel to bribe our MLAs. However, alert MLAs foiled their bid,” said Bhakta Charan Das, President of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee.

Mr. Das said, “we would move Election Commission of India raising the blatant attempt to bribe lawmakers and seek its intervention.”

“We are suspect that large amount of money has changed hands in the last Rajya Sabha election for which an independent candidate, despite not having numerical strength in Odisha Legislative Assembly, won the seat,” said OPCC President.

Former Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik had also raised the bribery charges. “Reports have emerged that four individuals were arrested in Bengaluru on allegations of attempting to hand over blank cheques to MLAs with the intent to buy votes for BJP-supported Rajya Sabha candidates,” Mr. Patnaik had written on ‘X’ on Monday (March 16).

“For the past few days, I have been consistently stating that the BJP has been engaged in horse-trading-like activities to bring MLAs from other parties in Odisha over to its side. This arrest in Bengaluru is major proof of that. The people of Odisha are watching everything and will certainly keep this in mind,” he stated.

In March 16 Rajya Sabha election, Bharatiya Janta Party-backed candidates, Manmohan Samal, Sujeet Kumar and Dilip Ray were elected while Biju Janata Dal candidate Santrupta Mishra also won comfortably.

Dr. Datteswar Hota, a common candidate supported by BJD, Congress and CPI (M), lost the election following voting by 11 MLAs (8 BJD and three Congress) against whips of their respective parties.  Congress suspended three MLAs, Ramesh Jena, Dasarathi Gamango and Sofia Firdous and threatened to move for disqualification of their membership.

Similarly, BJD has issued show-cause notice to six MLAs who voted for independent candidate Dilip Ray. It had suspended two MLAs before Rajya Sabha elections.