BENGALURU: A dramatic political event unfolded at a resort near Bengaluru on the eve of Rajya Sabha elections on Sunday, after two men allegedly tried to lure Odisha Congress MLAs, who are in Bengaluru, offering them cash to cross-vote.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar said the incident occurred at a resort in Bidadi where Odisha Congress legislators have been put up to prevent them from being poached ahead of a tight contest for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat in Odisha.
The MLAs had been moved to the resort at the request of Odisha Congress chief Bhakta Charan Das amid fears of cross-voting in the election scheduled for March 16.
Shivakumar told reporters that the two men from Bhubaneswar in Odisha allegedly entered the resort and tried to contact the legislators clandestinely. They allegedly offered Rs 5 crore each to the eight MLAs to vote in favour of BJP or an independent candidate backed by it.
“A blank cheque signed by a person from Rourkela in Odisha was also recovered from them,” Shivakumar said. The two had booked rooms online and were suspected to have been aided by local BJP workers in Bengaluru, Shivakumar added.
Congress leaders claimed that when the MLAs refused the offer, the visitors issued open threats. Alert Congress workers quickly intervened and caught hold of the two men before handing them over to the police at Bidadi.
A formal complaint was filed by Odisha Congress MLA Ashok Kumar Das, deputy leader of the party’s legislature wing. The police registered a case and started the investigation.
Meanwhile, BJP, however, strongly denied the allegations, calling it a “drama” aimed at creating a political narrative ahead of the voting.
The episode once again thrust “resort politics” into the spotlight. Shivakumar had played a similar role during the 2017 Rajya Sabha election, hosting 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at a Bengaluru resort to help late Ahmed Patel win.