Whips to ensure legislators vote along party lines for Council, RS polls

Political parties in the state are gearing up to face elections to the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha scheduled for June 10 and 11 respectively. This is despite the Election Commission yet to take a final decision on complaints about electoral malpractices in the Rajya Sabha elections.

MLAs form the electoral college in both the elections. The Congress, BJP and JD(S) have made voting for both the polls mandatory for their legislators.

The JD(S) will hold its legislature party meeting on Thursday evening, while the Congress and the BJP will hold their meetings on Friday morning. Government chief whip in the Legislative Assembly Ashok Pattan said he has issued a whip to all Congress MLAs making it mandatory for them to vote according to the preference assigned in the slips provided to them. “All MLAs have been asked to be in Bengaluru by Thursday evening,” he said.

As many as eight candidates are in the fray for seven seats for the Council elections and five candidates are in the fray for fours seats in the Rajya Sabha elections.

The votes of nine Independents and MLAs of smaller parties are crucial in both the elections.

Three of the Independent MLAs Satish Sail, Arvind Chandrakanth Patil and Mankala Vaidya, who had left for Mumbai, are expected to return to Bengaluru on Thursday. A batch of Congress MLAs, including S T Somashekar, Byarthi Basavaraj and Muniratna will also return to Bengaluru on Thursday. “We have completed our trip to Shirdi and will reach Bengaluru tomorrow night,” Somashekar said. 

Dinner cancelled
The Congress usually holds a dinner for its legislators ahead of the elections but has cancelled it this time to avoid media speculation about who attends or skips it, Pattan said.  The  BJP Legislature Party (BJPLP) will be held on Friday at 9 am at the party headquarters and whips will be issued on the same day, party sources said.
JD(S) sources said that party will allocate first and second preference votes to MLAs for Council polls during the legislature party meeting on Thursday.

MLAs have been asked to cast their first preference votes to party Rajya Sabha candidate B M Farook during the election to the Upper House.

The letter despatched to all legislators states that action will be initiated under the Anti-Defection law against those who absent themselves or indulge in cross-voting.

Asked why the Congress is issuing a whip to MLAs when it is a secret ballot for the Council polls, state Congress chief G Parameshwara said it is to ensure that all MLAs
follow instructions of the party on voting.

Digvijaya Singh, Congress party in-charge of Karnataka, is expected to arrive in Bengaluru on Thursday evening.