BJP Karnataka Seeks Divine Intervention to Identify Cross-Voting MLAs

The BJP Karnataka unit has planned to seek divine intervention to identify the MLAs who voted in favour of the Congress in the June 18 Legislative Council elections. The development has hurt the party's reputation and left the central leadership livid.

BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra and Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka are scheduled to meet national president Nitin Nabin in Delhi on Tuesday to explain the sordid episode that has left the state unit deeply embarrassed.

Vijayendra told the media on Sunday that the party would soon convene a legislature party meeting at Dharmasthala in consultation with R. Ashoka. It is widely believed that the presiding deity, Lord Manjunatha, upholds truth and that no one can get away with uttering a lie at the temple.

Vijayendra said he was keen that the identities of the MLAs who betrayed the party be revealed at Dharmasthala. “My conscience is not accepting the cross-voting,” he said, adding that they need to place the facts before party members and restore the party's honour.

Senior BJP leader S. Suresh Kumar, however, urged the state president to drop the idea, saying the temple has its own sanctity and that it was not appropriate to drag it into a murky political controversy.

He warned that if the guilty MLAs came to the temple and swore before the deity that they had not cross-voted in order to save themselves, it would only cause further damage.

The BJP is trying to determine how many MLAs cross-voted and identify them, though some leaders the party spoke to said it would be easier said than done. Establishing any conclusion with proof will be difficult because the MLC polls were conducted through a secret ballot.

“The party workers are in a state of shock because each one of us won due to their efforts. People voted for us after seeing Prime Minister Modi's face. A situation has now arisen in which people are looking at each of the 63 BJP MLAs, including me, with suspicion. No one would vote for another party for free,” Vijayendra said.

The state BJP has formed a three-member committee to identify the MLAs who voted in favour of the Congress. The panel comprises MLC C.T. Ravi, BJP state vice-president N. Mahesh (Kollegal) and Hubballi-Dharwad Central MLA Mahesh Tenginkai. The committee will submit its report by June 25.

In the Council polls for seven seats from the Assembly, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar emerged with flying colours as the Congress won all five seats for which it fielded candidates. The election was also a major political test for Shivakumar after he took over as chief minister earlier this month.

Govindaraju, the BJP-JDS alliance candidate fielded by the regional party, lost after Shivakumar not only secured all Congress votes but also managed to attract a few from the opposition BJP and JDS in the secret ballot.