The BJD, like the last time’s Rajya Sabha elections, aims at horse trading in the coming polls for the Parliament’s Upper House too, as clearly indicated by a leader of the State’s ruling party after nominations were filed by different candidates on Tuesday.
BJD Rajya Sabha member Sashi Bhusan Behera, participating in a TV debate, repeatedly claimed that his party depends on the “faction-ridden” Congress legislature Party for victory of sculptor Padma Vibhusan Raghunath Mohaptra, whom the BJD has projected as the Independent nominee for
the fourth and last seat from the State for the RS polls though the party has no requisite number of 30 MlAs to get him elected.
Behera cloaked the BJD’s assertion with the euphemistic phrase “conscience vote” from some Congress MlAs in favour of Mohapatra because of the sculptor’s eminent standing in the arena of art.