Bhubaneswar, March 1: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Monday hit out at the BJP over the Rajya Sabha elections, alleging horse-trading and involvement of individuals with criminal backgrounds.
Reacting strongly to the cross-voting by his MLAs, Patnaik said, “Those who have done cross-voting have criminal records. Even their fathers had faced imprisonment in the past.”
"As has been discussed in the last few days about the BJP and their allies, it is clear what is meant for the horse trading they will do. They have collected a number of people to work for them. Most of them have criminal pasts, I am ashamed to say. Check for yourselves how many of their parents went to jail, or have themselves been threatened by jail. And as recently as yesterday, BJP MLAs were kept in Paradip,” said Patnaik.
The reaction of the former Chief Minister came after several BJD MLAs cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections today with young MLAs – Debi Ranjan Tripathy and Souvik Biswal – openly saying that they have cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections.
Earlier today, Patnaik alleged irregularities during voting for the Rajya Sabha elections, claiming that election norms were violated after a legislator was issued a second ballot paper.
The biennial Rajya Sabha elections are being held to fill 37 seats across 10 states. With polling currently underway, the counting of votes is scheduled to begin at 5 PM today.
The term of 37 members who were elected from Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana will conclude in the month of April, vacating the seats for new members to be elected.
Out of these, 26 candidates have already secured victory unopposed. Voting will now take place for the remaining 11 seats, including four from Odisha, five from Bihar, and two from Haryana.
