RS polls: 3 women BJP MLAs wanted to cross-vote for Cong

Bhopal: Contrary to general perception that only the ruling BJP can break away Congress leaders and elected representatives in Madhya Pradesh, it seems the reverse nearly happened during the recently held Rajya Sabha elections in the state.
Three women BJP MLAs from Bundelkhand region were in touch with AICC general secretary and former Union minister Kamal Nath before the Rajya Sabha polls.Nath was the Congress in-charge of Rajya Sabha elections in the state. Two of these women legislators belonging to the ruling party even met Nath and Congress' candidate (now RS MP) Vivek Tankha at Hotel Noor-us-Sabah. The third woman MLA was in touch with the Congress leader over telephone. Sources in the Congress confirmed the meeting and said these women BJP MLAs did not wish to continue in politics or contest another election. They were willing to cross-vote for Tankha, knowing well that they could not continue in BJP since voting was through open ballot.
When TOI approached the Congress for a comment on the meeting, state PCC chief spokesman KK Mishra said, "Nath is a senior central leader from MP. Not just women BJP MLAs, many leaders from the ruling party are regularly in touch with him." According to sources, the meeting with women BJP MLAs took place before the BSP assured the Congress of its support to Tankha. When the Congress was certain that all four BSP MLAs would vote for its candidate, it backed out of finalising the cross-voting from BJP's women legislators.
Congress, which has 57 MLAs in the assembly, needed just one vote to get Tankha elected. But it had other hindrances like the critical health condition of leader of opposition Satyadev Katare who is still undergoing treatment in a Mumbai hospital. Another MLA from Sironj, Govardhan Upadhyay, was suffering from acute spinal condition. Yet another MLA, Ramesh Patel of Badwani, was in jail while the party was not sure whether its legislator from Jatara seat, Dinesh Ahirwar, was going to vote for Tankha.
There was also the fear that the ruling BJP, which has so far taken away more than half-a-dozen prominent Congress MLAs and MPs since July 2013, could do it again especially when it badly wanted to bag even the third RS seat from the state. As BJP announced contesting the third seat by fielding its state general secretary Vinod Gothia against Tankha, the Congress started making its own calculations. Meeting women BJP MLAs was just one of them.