BHUBANESWAR : Ahead of the Rajya Sabha election on March 16, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has called a meeting on Monday to discuss its strategy and ensure there is no cross-voting by the party MLAs during the polls.
The meeting will be presided by OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das. Sources said the party will also have to address issues of internal conflict in the CLP to keep the legislators united.
As it is, the Congress had on Saturday declared support to Dr Datteswar Hota, one of the two nominees of BJD, who was announced as common candidate by BJD president Naveen Patnaik.
The BJD, which has a strength of 48 in the Assembly, will have 18 surplus votes after winning the first seat. The combined strength of BJD and Congress with 14 MLAs, will be 32 votes. Sources said a shift of four to five votes in favour of the BJP-supported candidate will change the poll result. The party will also have to decide its strategy if Dr Hota does not file his nomination papers as an Independent candidate.
CLP leader Ramachandra Kadam, however, ruled out any possibility of cross-voting by Congress MLAs. “All the 14 MLAs are united and will vote for the candidate as decided by the party,” he said adding, the OPCC president will also have discussion with the national leadership about the decision taken by the state Congress to support Dr Hota.
Kadam said the lone CPM candidate is also likely to vote in favour of Dr Hota if he files his nomination papers as an Independent candidate.