Journalism of Courage
The BJP in Orissa is all set to vote for Congress-backed businessman Tara Ranjan Patnaik in the June 17 Rajya Sabha election with senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu making it clear that his party would make all the effort to teach BJD a lesson for its great betrayal.
Naidu who came to Bhubaneswar yesterday to discuss with the party legislators said his party would not help BJD directly or indirectly in the election to the 3 Rajya Sabha seats from Orissa. In the 147-member Orissa Assembly,BJP has 6 legislators. Besides independent MLA Pratap Sarangi is also backed by the party. “There is no question of extending direct or indirect support to the BJD in the Rajya Sabha elections. It is an insincere party,” said Naidu.
With BJP making up its mind to support the Congress-backed Tara Patnaik,the race for the third Rajya Sabha seat now promises to be a humdinger. With all the 27 MLAs of Congress as well as well as 2 Congress-backed independents supporting Tara Patnaik and the 7 BJP ready to vote for him Patnaik is just one vote away from making it to the House of Elders. Patnaik is now all set to reach the the magic number of 37 first preference votes after independent MLA George Tirkey announced his support for him.
Now BJD is scrounging around for the required 37 votes.. The party has 31 votes for the third seat and if all the 4 NCP MLAs vote for the party candidate Baishnab Parida,still it would fall short of 2 votes. However,senior BJD leader Pyari Mohan Mohapatra exuded confidence that all the 3 candidates of the party would sail through in the RS polls. “We have the required numbers,” he told Express.
