Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 16: At least five MLAs of the Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and three from the Congress in Odisha have clearly cross-voted in favour of the BJP-backed independent candidate Dilip Ray for the third seat in the Rajya Sabha from the state the voting for which were held on Monday.
Considering their respective strength in the state Assembly, the BJP was favourite to win two seats, the BJD one and the fourth seat was up for grab by any candidate who could influence cross-voting from other parties. As the results declared on Monday evening, the BJP backed candidates Manmohan Samal, and Sujeet Kumar as well as hotelier Dilip Ray, who contested as an independent sponsored by the BJP, and the BJD candidate Santrupta Mishra have won their respective Rajya Sabha elections.
The terms of 37 members elected from Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana will conclude in April, vacating the seats for new members for whom the elections were held on Monday barring those who have already been elected unopposed.
Of the 37 seats, 26 seats have already been filled by unopposed candidates, including 85-year-old NCP founder Sharad Pawar, Republican Party of India (RPI-A) chief Ramdas Athawale, and AIADMK veteran M Thambidurai. Voting on Monday was held for the remaining 11 seats — five in Bihar, four in Odisha, and two in Haryana.
At present, the Opposition bloc — Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has 80 seats in the 245-seat Upper House, while the ruling coalition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) holds a comfortable majority of 136 members with BJP itself having 102 MPs.
Of the 11 seats where the polling was held, the numbers favour NDA in four out of five seats in Bihar, two out of four seats in Odisha, and one out of the two seats in Haryana. The remaining three seats are expected to see close contests with Independents, rebel candidates, and cross-voting holding the key.
Among the unopposed candidates, the BJP secured seven, Congress five, the Trinamool Congress four, the DMK three, and Shiv Sena, RPI(A), NCP, NCP(SP), AIADMK, PMK, and UPPL one each. Notable winners include Sharad Pawar, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Tiruchi Siva, and Vinod Tawade.
In Maharashtra, all seven candidates were elected unopposed after the Maha Vikas Aghadi picked Sharad Pawar over Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi for re-elections. The NDA nominees included BJP’s Vinod Tawde, Ramrao Wadkute and Maya Ivnate, Shiv Sena’s Jyoti Waghmare, NCP’s Parth Pawar and RPI’s Ramdas Athawale.
Poll-bound states Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal elected six, three, and five MPs respectively. Adding to the Opposition’s numbers in the Upper House are DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and J. Constantine Ravindran, Congress’ M Christopher Tilak and DMDK treasurer L.K. Sudeesh from Tamil Nadu, TMC’s Babul Supriyo, former West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar, senior Supreme Court advocate Menaka Guruswamy and actor Koel Mallick from West Bengal, Congress’ Abhishek Singhvi and Vem Narender Reddy from Telangana, Anurag Sharma from Himachal Pradesh and Phulo Devi from Chhattisgarh.
The NDA too secured unopposed victories in Assam’s three seats, electing BJP’s Jogen Mohan and UPPL’s Terash Gowala. It also re-elected AIADMK MP M. Thambidurai and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss from Tamil Nadu and BJP’s Laxmi Verma from Chhattisgarh.
On the cross-voting in Odisha, the BJD deputy chief whip Pratap Keshari Deb said eight party MLAs cross-voted in favour of Mr Ray. The BJD chief and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik had slammed the BJP for “horse-trading.” He said, “I have spoken to you in last few days about BJP and its allies, you know what I mean, for the horse-trading they will do. They have collected a number of persons who voted for them. Most of them have criminal past, I am ashamed to say. You can check yourself as to how many of their parents went to jail and how they were with them,” Mr Patnaik said.
“And yesterday, BJP MLAs were kept in Paradip. I feel very sad that Odisha, a beautiful State, is having these problems. BJD fought before and will continue to fight for democratic right and economic development of our beloved State,” said Mr Patnaik.
BJD MLA Souvic Biswal, representing Choudwar-Cuttack Assembly constituency, admitted to have cross-voted saying his father, former BJD MLA Pravat Biswal, was humiliated and expelled by the Naveen Patnaik-led regional party. “I have voted for the person on whom late Biju Patnaik had his blessings,” he said indicating his vote for the independent candidate Dilip Ray. Debiranjan Tripathy, BJD MLA, also defected from party line and voted for independent candidate, Dilip Ray. He said BJD had made an unholy alliance with Congress.
BJD’s Banki MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy also announced that he voted in favour of the BJP-backed Independent candidate. “I oppose our party’s decision to join hands with the Congress. My decision to vote for the BJP-supported Independent candidate is in line with the legacy of Biju Patnaik, who had all along fought against the Congress,” Mr Tripathy said.
Bhakta Charan Das, president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee, said three MLAs of his party have voted against the party whip in the biennial Rajya Sabha elections.
BJP-backed independent candidate Dilip Ray said, “Everyone knows my relationship with leaders across party line. I pay my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi and State BJP president Manmohan Samal for their total support. I have got success because of support of many in BJD and Congress.”