BJP Leadership Summons Karnataka Unit Over Cross-Voting in MLC Elections

New Delhi: The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday summoned its Karnataka unit leaders to Delhi to explain cross-voting that affected the party's performance in the recent Legislative Council (MLC) elections.

BJP national president Nitin Nabin met Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka, and BJP national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Radha Mohan Das Agarwal. Sources said Nabin questioned the leaders about the cross-voting and sought an explanation. The central leadership is awaiting the report of a three-member committee headed by C T Ravi, which is expected to submit its findings by June 25.

The meeting comes after the June 13 polls to seven Council seats, where cross-voting by some BJP MLAs upset the party's calculations and triggered a blame game within the BJP-JD(S) alliance. Following the central leadership's intervention, the Karnataka BJP decided against holding a Legislature Party meeting at Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Temple, which had been planned to identify legislators suspected of cross-voting. Sources said there were plans to make BJP legislators swear before the temple deity, but the party later decided against using a temple for political purposes.

There was disagreement over who was responsible. Those close to Vijayendra argued that the BJP Legislature Party leadership should have ensured MLAs voted together. The Ashoka camp maintained that the state unit should have ensured ally JD(S) did not field an eighth candidate. Some BJP leaders alleged that certain BJP leaders who had a grudge against Vijayendra misled JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy into fielding an additional candidate.

A senior Karnataka BJP leader claimed that Kumaraswamy had been warned his candidate stood little chance of winning. The leader also alleged that some JD(S) MLAs were ready to switch to the Congress after D K Shivakumar became Chief Minister. “The BJP central leadership in Delhi is upset. Developments in Karnataka have come as a spoiler amid the party’s recent gains nationally,” the leader said.

Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Ashoka said the proposal to hold the Legislature Party meeting in Dharmasthala had come on the advice of senior leaders, but the state unit decided against it. “We have decided to solve it at the party level,” Ashoka said, adding that cross-voting was not unprecedented. He also accused Shivakumar of engineering defections through money and muscle power, alleging that he paid Rs 5 to 10 crore to legislators. These allegations were not independently verified.

Both Ashoka and Vijayendra briefed Nabin about the cross-voting episode. “Based on the information provided by us, he assured us that action would be taken against those responsible at the appropriate time,” Ashoka said, adding that the party would not spare anyone who had betrayed it.

In the MLC election, each BJP candidate required 30 first-preference votes to win. However, the two BJP nominees received 29 and 27 votes respectively, indicating cross-voting. BJP candidate Lingaraj Patil won only in the elimination round despite falling short of the required quota initially. The Congress won five of the seven seats.