The Karnataka Police Sunday arrested two BJP leaders on the outskirts of Bengaluru for allegedly attempting to bribe eight Odisha Congress MLAs with Rs 5 crore each to secure cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections.
The two arrestees have been identified as Birendra Prasad and Byatarayanapura Suresh.
Two other accused, Ajith Kumar Sahu and Simanchal Mahakud, are currently on the run.
Shrinivas Gowda R, Superintendent of Police,BengaluruSouth, told TheIndian Expressthat the accused have been arrested under Sections 173 (electoral bribery) and 352 (intentional insults designed to provoke a breach of peace or commit another offence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and Section 7 (demanding or accepting illegal gratification, whether directly or through third parties, for doing or forbearing any official act) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The arrests were made after Ashok Kumar Das, Deputy Leader, Congress Legislative Party in Odisha, filed a complaint about an alleged BJP plan to kidnap their legislators to influence the elections.
According to a police officer, the four accused managed to enter the Wonder La resort in Bengaluru and tried to bribe the Odisha Congress MLAs.
Eight first-time MLAs from the Congress were lodged at the resort to protect them from “being threatened to do cross-voting”.
These MLAs are Rajan Ekka, Ashok Das, Appala Kumar Swamy, Mangu Killo, Pavitra Sauntha, Nilamadhav Hikka, Prafulla Pradhan, and Sathyajit Gomongo.
Elections to fourRajya Sabhaseats from Odisha are being conducted on Monday.
The ruling BJP has fielded three candidates, and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has nominated one candidate.
The BJD has also jointly fielded with the Congress famous urologist Dr Datteshwar Hota, who is also the former director of Odisha Medical University.
In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, each candidate will need 30 votes to win.
In such a scenario, the Opposition BJD has 48 MLAs and the Congress 14.
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Source: This article was originally published by The Indian Express
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