Bhubaneswar, March 15 Amidst fears of cross-voting and allegations of "horse trading," Odisha will hold Rajya Sabha elections after a gap of 12 years on Monday, as five candidates are contesting for four seats in the Upper House of Parliament.
This time, the Rajya Sabha elections have turned into a prestige battle between BJD president Naveen Patnaik and the BJP, which unseated the five-time chief minister in the 2024 general elections.
Patnaik has alleged "horse trading" by the ruling BJP and its three candidates.
Neither the ruling BJP nor the opposition BJD has the numbers to win an additional seat after winning two and one seat respectively. According to the Rajya Sabha arithmetic in Odisha, a candidate needs at least 30 first preference votes to win a seat.
According to the current party position in the Odisha Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs and the support of three Independent members, while the BJD has 48 MLAs after the suspension of two of its members. The Congress has 14 members and CPI(M) has one MLA in the 147-member Odisha Assembly.
After electing its two official candidates – Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar, the BJP will have 22 surplus first preference votes, which is short of eight to achieve the magic number of 30 for BJP leader and Independent candidate Dilip Ray to win.
Similarly, the BJD will have 18 surplus votes after electing its official candidate, Santrupt Misra.
As neither party could win the fourth seat on its own, the BJD nominated eminent urologist Dr Datteswar Hota as a common candidate, who secured the support of Congress and CPI (M).
Hota could get 33 first preference votes if there is no cross-voting. Therefore, to keep its members together and shield them from "horse trading," the Congress shifted eight of its MLAs to a hotel in Karnataka while six others remained in Bhubaneswar.
However, Congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka alleged that the agents of Independent candidate Dilip Ray reached the hotel in Bengaluru and attempted to offer Rs 5 crore to each MLA in order to get their support in the Monday elections.
"The four people were later arrested by Karnataka police following an FIR lodged by Congress deputy leader in the Assembly, Ashok Das," a statement issued by OPCC said.
Patnaik also put his entire efforts to keep his MLAs together and therefore held regular meetings with lawmakers and also organised lunch parties every day at Naveen Niwas. Despite issuing a whip, two BJD MLAs abstained from attending meetings at Naveen Niwas, following which the party issued show cause notices.
The state Congress leadership also issued a show cause notice to one MLA Dasarathi Gomango, who kept himself incommunicado for five days, thus violating party whip, OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das said, alleging that the BJP was attempting to lure Congress MLAs through different means, including "horse trading".
However, Das claimed, the Congress MLAs (except Gomango) are united to vote on party line for Dr Hota.
The lone CPI(M) MLA, Laxman Munda, has also announced at a press conference that he would cast his vote in favour of Dr Hota.
Meanwhile, all four parties have appointed their agents to monitor the votes of their MLAs in the RS voting at Room number 54 of the Odisha Assembly.
This election witnessed a rare political understanding between the BJD and Congress. The two parties, known as traditional rivals, agreed to a common candidate, Dr Hota. "The understanding with Congress is for the Rajya Sabha elections and not any alliance as alleged by the opposition," BJD candidate Santrupt Misra said.
OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das said, "Both the BJD and Congress agreed to one candidate to foil the horse trading by BJP. The Opposition’s common candidate Dr Hota, has the support of 33 MLAs, while the BJP-backed Independent nominee has the support of only 22 MLAs. Therefore, they are making all efforts for cross-voting to win the poll."
BJP leaders, including its state president Manmohan Samal and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, have rejected the "horse trading" allegation and said that Ray will win the polls as he has a lot of well-wishers across all parties.