Cross-voting by Congress legislators, which led to an upset defeat of former Member of Parliament Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi in elections to the Legislative Council on Monday, has taken an interesting turn with the party’s victorious candidate M.R. Sitaram claiming that he made it with the help of six ‘friendly’ MLAs of other parties.

Faced with stringent disciplinary action by the party in the aftermath of Mr Saradagi’s defeat, Mr Sitaram has reportedly written to KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar and leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Siddaramaiah, that he managed to secure 20 votes, six more than that allotted by the party. He has stated that he did not wean away voters from Mr Saradagi but turned to them for support when he learnt that five independent MLAs, who originally gave their word, reneged in favour of independent Mr Bhairati Suresh, according to sources in the state unit of Congress.

Mr Sitaram’s explanation could open a Pandora’s box and spell trouble for legislators of non-Congress parties who helped him win with second highest tally of votes. The sources said Congress leaders in New Delhi were upset that neither Dr Parameshwar nor Mr Siddaramaiah informed them that independent legislators changed their stand at the eleventh hour. Besides, they did not consult leaders in Delhi on reallocation of votes in the changed circumstances. Meanwhile, the five-member committee appointed to track down truant legislators would hold its first meeting on Friday. The members plan to summon and grill legislators who were told to vote for Saradagi and Govindaraju.

Now, BSY targets CM on cross voting
The daggers are out in the ruling BJP once again with the camp of former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa targeting CM Sadananda Gowda for his inability to stop cross voting by party MLAs during the recent Council polls from the Assembly constituency.

As many as 12 BJP MLAs had cross voted jeopardizing the prospects of party candidates who would otherwise have sailed through smoothly. Even former vice chairperson of the Council, Vimala Gowda, got much less votes than anticipated though she and the other five BJP candidates finally made it. The BSY camp has prepared a list of the legislators who voted for non-BJP candidates. In their complaint to the party top brass, BSY loyalists have blamed municipal administration minister Balachandra Jarkiholi and the eight MLAs supporting him for the near debacle in the polls. Jarkiholi had stoutly opposed the reinstatement of BSY as CM which is all the more reason why the former CM’s camp has an axe to grind with him

The Bellary MLAs’ camp comprising close associates of jailed mine baron Gali Janardhan Reddy has also come under fire in the letter for cross voting. Sources said BSY’s ploy is to embarass party national general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Dharmendra Pradhan, who had propped up Jarkiholi to counter Yeddyurappa’s efforts to stage a comeback. Of the 122 BJP MLAs, the party had requested 20 MLAs each to cast their first preference votes for the six candidates and the remaining two MLAs to cast their votes for Vimala Gowda and Raghunath Malkapure to make sure they won.