Horse-trading row: State to file FIR

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Friday announced that it will file an FIR in connection with the controversy over alleged horse-trading during last year’s Rajya Sabha elections. The FIR will be lodged as per the directive of the Election Commission, Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik told mediapersons.Patnaik, however, did not elaborate against whom the FIR will be lodged.The EC directive is based on a complaint from former Union minister Braja Kishore Tripathy pointing the finger at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for trying to influence the result of the polls.Two ministers of state, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Pushpendra Singhdeo, are allegedly involved in the purchase of Opposition MLAs (two Congress and one BJP) as a result of which the BJD won all the three seats without sufficient numbers.Rejection of one vote from a Congress MLA also helped the BJD candidates to win. The Government had referred the matter to the EC in the wake of mounting pressure from the Opposition parties.“We have received a directive from the EC. Accordingly, the State Government will lodge FIR at police station and submit a CD and a letter as material evidence,” the Chief Secretary said.Earlier, the Chief Minister had said he was not aware of the EC’s direction to the State Government.“If the Chief Secretary has received such a letter, I am sure he will take appropriate steps in this regard,” he said.Braja Tripathy had written a letter to the EC alleging horse trading during last year’s Rajya Sabha polls. Though the ruling BJD did not have adequate numbers to capture three vacant seats, its candidates won all seats, Tripathy pointed out.The issue came to limelight a year after the Rajya Sabha polls when a local TV channel aired an audio cassette with recorded conversation between a minister and a middleman on the Rajya Sabha elections.The cassette named two ministers and a Congress MLA who allegedly colluded to manipulate the polls. The ministers have denied the allegations against them and the Opposition Congress suspended the MLA from the party.The State unit of the BJP had also suspended one of its MLAs for abstaining from the polls defying party whip.Another audio cassette alleging that Opposition-supported Independent candidate Tara Ranjan Patnaik wanted to purchase BJP MLAs was also in circulation.