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Journalism of Courage
The Congress and BJP,possibly for the first time,issued whips on Wednesday to their respective members in Orissa to vote for the same candidate for one of the three seats in the June 17 Rajya Sabha election amid reports of disappearance of two MLAs from the Opposition ranks.
The two parties are backing Independent Tara Ranjan Patnaik,a leading seafood exporter,who has close family ties with senior Congressmen like Niranjan Patnaik and Soumyaranjan Patnaik.
Patnaik is a formidable candidate with the support of BJP and Congress. BJP spokesman Ashok Sahu said the partys support with six members to Patnaik was aimed at defeating the BJD. Its our anger against Naveen that has driven us towards issuing whip, said Sahu.
The Congress has already issued whips to all its 27 members to vote for Patnaik. With four Independent MLAs declaring the support for him,Patnaik has the required 37 votes.
However,all arithmetic for the third seat is likely to go for a toss with both BJP and Congress alleging that two of their MLAs are untraceable. While BJPs Sahu said party MLA from Bonei in Sundargarh,Bhimsen Chouhdury,is untraceable for the past 48 hours,Harichandan said Congress MLA from Lanjigarh in Kalahandi,Shivaji Majhi,could not be traced. Both Opposition parties alleged that the BJD is resorting to unfair means and has abducted the two.
