Bhubaneswar: Stung by cross-voting fear ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections slated to be held in Odisha on Monday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shifted its MLAs to Paradip.
Sources said the BJP legislators, including ministers, boarded two luxury buses to the port town after a crucial meeting with senior leaders at the state party headquarters in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and senior leaders.
BJP, which has fielded Samal and re-nominated MP Sujeet Kumar as the official candidates, is backing party leader and hotelier Dilip Ray as an Independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections.
The BJP MLAs are reportedly staying at a luxury hotel in Paradip owned by Ray, party sources said.
While boarding the bus, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister K C Patra said, “We are certain to win three of the four Rajya Sabha seats going to polls on March 16. The party has already prepared a strategy. The MLAs will be imparted training at Paradip before they come to cast their votes.”
Expressing similar confidence, Law Minister Prithiviraj Harchandan claimed that BJP’s three candidates will win in the Monday polls. “Wait till Monday evening,” he said, adding that the saffron party MLAs will attend a special training session
on the voting procedure at Paradip to ensure flawless voting.
The BJD named the party’s deputy chief whip, P K Deb, as its official agent to remain present at the polling booth in the Assembly on the Rajya Sabha polling day.
The members of all the parties on Saturday attended the mock drill at room number 54 of the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
“The training and mock drill are very important because, as many as 84 first-time MLAs have been elected to the 147-member House,” an assembly official said.
Meanwhile, the BJD MLAs on Saturday evening attended the “priority” meeting convened by party president Naveen Patnaik.
Congress MLA Dasarathi Gomango from Mohana went “incommunicado”. “We are trying to contact him, but have not been able to reach him so far,” Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam said. Congress MLA from Barabati-Cuttack, Sofia Firdous, expressed her displeasure with the party backing the BJD-nominated common candidate Dr Datteswar Hota. “The understanding with BJD may be harmful for the Congress,” she said, but did not divulge whether she will go by the party decision to vote for Dr Hota.
The BJD has fielded party leader Santrupt Misra as its official candidate and named eminent urolologist Dr Datteswar Hota as the common candidate supported by Congress and CPI(M).
Addressing a press conference, CPI(M) MLA Laxman Munda said that he would vote for Dr Hota as per the decision of the party.
The contest is mostly between Ray and Hota, who are fighting for the fourth seat. While the BJP is sure to win two seats, the BJD will bag one seat as per the numbers in the Assembly. However, neither party has the numbers to win an additional seat for which they fielded Independent candidates.