All looked the other way while MLAs cross-voted

Cross-voting by MLAs during March 30 Rajya Sabha elections has forced political parties to keep mum rather than address the tough issue which is now under CBI investigation.

Two consecutive CBI raids on the premises of 18 MLAs, on April 21 and May 18, and investigations so far reveal that dozens of MLAs were involved in alleged horse trading to cast first or second preference vote for an Independent candidate without any qualms for falling on the integrity index.

They had read and signed directives of their parties to cast first preference vote to the party candidate or to the alliance candidate and had been warned that using second preference will be considered anti-party activity.

The Congress invoked the name of party national president Sonia Gandhi. The BJP held two sessions for its MLAs on polling day and force-fed them the concept of clean politics. The JMM chief Shibu Soren resorted to theatrics to urge that Sanjeev Kumar’s win was his last wish.

Sitting in Patna, RJD chief, Lalu Prasad directed his MLAs to support Congress candidate Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu. But the directive got lost somewhere in Ranchi where couple of RJD MLAs had some other ‘profitable’ plans.

The AJSU Party announced support to the JMM candidate which remained on paper. AJSU party minister, Chandra Prakash Chaudhary, was busy calculating required votes and bargaining support price for an Independent candidate which became evident after the CBI seized a chart-sheet from his residence.

Election Commission had forewarned to countermand election in case of horse trading and Income Tax Department even seized `2.15 crore cash from the possession of close aides of Independent candidate RK Agrawal. It happened despite the BJP, Congress and JMM deputing seasoned leaders as election agents. The AJSU party, RJD and JD(U) by not appointing any election agent, had silently allowed cross-voting.

CBI sources said four out of five AJSU MLAs, three from the RJD and one of the JD(U) MLAs had voted for Pawan Kumar Dhoot. Leaders of the BJP, Congress and JMM are finding it tough to explain the circumstances under which their MLAs dared to cross party line.

 The BJP had appointed Anant Ojha and Balmukund Sahay as polling agent. Two of BJP MLAs, Ramchandra Baitha and Arun Mandal, reportedly cast their first and second preference vote to Dhoot despite the party had announced to support the JMM. The party had previous notion about Baitha but had no inkling about Mandal. The CBI during raids seized Rs 15 lakh cash from his residence. “It is a mystery. Though, he had shown his ballot to our polling agent, size of the ballot paper was quite small. He might have managed,” a senior party leader said. Baitha rather got reward for cross-voting as the BJP revoked his suspension from the party after a gap of two years.

The JMM election agent Supriyo Bhattachary who had claimed that JMM fold remained united and none used second preference, had, no convincing explanation after three of the JMM MLAs, Sita Soren, Polush Surin and Vishnu Bhaiya, allegedly voted for Dhoot. “To the best of my knowledge none defied party line. If it happened I should blame my poor eyesight,” he said.

Leader of the Congress legislative body Rajendra Singh, who was election agent of the party along with Chandrasekhar Dubey, too was evasive. “I am very outspoken. When Anant Pratap Dev had cast vote for the JVM candidate by mistake I promptly demanded its cancellation. We had been ensuring first preference vote. If anybody cheated by using second preference to help others, then the party is going to take action,” he said.

But the CBI sources are not ready to believe election agents as ‘innocent fellows with poor eyesight’. “It was a grand conspiracy hatched at the top level. Stage was managed in advance and suitable premium was paid,” CBI sources said.