With the Rajya Sabha election barely two days away, all the Opposition parties have come together and blamed the BJP for resorting to illegal means to capture the second seat. The parties, including JMM, Congress and JVM believed that the saffron party has indulged into horse-trading and intimidation for that purpose.
The JVM, on its part, has written to the Election Commission to appoint a team of able and dedicated officials to keep a close eye on the entire election process so that the State is ‘saved from repeating embarrassing situation it has been on previous occasions’.
The Opposition parties would also raise the matter before Governor Draupadi Murmu on Thursday for apprising her about the situation prevailing ahead of the election.
The JMM that has fielded Basant Soren for the election, alleged that the ruling party was by hook or by crook wanted to win both the seats. “When they don’t have numbers how come the BJP fielded the second candidate for the electionIJ The attempt is very clear which is to buy votes somehow. Their intentions are clear. Approving road projects for the constituency of Bhanu Pratap Shahi is another kind of horse trading, nothing else,” said JMM general secretary Binod Pandey addressing a press conference on Wednesday.
Basant, the party’s youth wing leader, is into the fray after his party’s de-facto boss Hemant Soren arranged support from Congress and JVM for him. As per the realistic calculations, he at present owns support of 30 MlAs, two more than the required that includes 19 from his party, seven of the Congress, two from the JVM and one each of Arup Chatterjee and the CPI (Ml) for the June 11 voting.
Moreover, the BJP with only 19 spare votes and after looking to have garnered supports from Geeta Koda and Bhanu Pratap Shahi is still short of at least seven votes for its second candidate Mahesh Poddar to win the seat for the party.
Though, declining that any such said attempt to ‘purchase’ its members had been made so far, the Congress looked suspicious about it. “There are three candidates for just two seats and the BJP is well short of winning the second seat. It is a clear attempt to encourage illegal means. The BJP is promoting horse trading by not allowing its second candidate to withdraw.” said Congress MP Pradeep Balmuchu.