What went wrong for BJP in Karnataka MLC polls? Delhi pulls up state leaders

The meeting comes days after the BJP suffered an embarrassment in the June 13 polls to seven Council seats, where cross-voting by some of its MLAs upset the party’s calculations and triggered a blame game within the BJP-JD(S) alliance.

Following intervention from the BJP top leadership, the Karnataka BJP has decided against holding a Legislature Party meeting at Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Temple. The meeting was planned to identify legislators suspected of cross-voting against the party.

Sources said there were plans to make BJP legislators swear before the temple deity in an attempt to identify those who had voted against the party line.

Blame game

While those close to Vijayendra argued that it was the responsibility of the BJP Legislature Party leadership to ensure MLAs voted together in favour of the party’s candidates, the Ashoka camp maintained that the state unit should have ensured ally JD(S) did not field a eighth candidate. However, a section of BJP leaders alleged that “some BJP leaders who had a grudge against Vijayendra had egged on and misled H D Kumaraswamy” into fielding an additional candidate.

The MLAs, sources said, were not persuaded by the leadership against cross-voting.

A senior Karnataka BJP leader said Kumaraswamy had been warned that his candidate stood little chance of winning. “There are some JD(S) MLAs who are ready to switch over to the Congress after D K Shivakumar took over (as Chief Minister),” the leader claimed.

“(The BJP central leadership in) Delhi is upset, and naturally so. Developments in Karnataka have come as a spoiler amid the party’s recent gains nationally. Kumaraswamy claims his candidate was defeated deliberately, but there was no realistic chance of victory. Now he is blaming the BJP,” the leader said.

‘Solution at party-level’

Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Ashoka said while the proposal to hold the Legislature Party meeting in Dharmasthala had come on the advice of senior leaders, the state unit decided against using a temple for political purposes.

“We have decided to solve it at the party level,” Ashoka said, adding that cross-voting was not unprecedented and had occurred on several occasions in the past.

He also targeted Shivakumar, accusing him of engineering defections during the election. “Using money power and muscle power is in his nature. We will discuss how to face him in the coming days. He has paid Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore to legislators,” Ashoka alleged.

Both Ashoka and Vijayendra briefed Nabin about the cross-voting episode during their meeting. “Based on the information provided by us, he assured us that action would be taken against those responsible at the appropriate time,” Ashoka said, adding that the party would not spare anyone who had betrayed it.

In the MLC election, each BJP candidate required 30 first-preference votes to secure victory. However, the two BJP nominees received 29 and 27 votes respectively, exposing cross-voting within the party. BJP candidate Lingaraj Patil eventually won only in the elimination round despite falling short of the required quota in the initial count. The Congress won five of the seven seats, while the BJP secured two seats. The JD(S) did not win any of the seats but marred its ally’s arithmetic.