Karnataka Council polls: BJP fears cross voting

BANGALORE: The crucial byelection to the lone Council seat, which will decide the fate of Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, will be held on Thursday. Though the present strength of the BJP in the Assembly is sufficient for Gowda to sail through the contest, rumours of cross voting, particularly by the supporters of Sriramulu and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s frantic efforts to replace Gowda as early as possible, have made this election interesting. In the 225-Member Assembly, the ruling BJP has 122 (including Independent MLA Varthur Prakash and nominated member Derrick Fullinfaw), Congress 71 and JD(S) 26 members. There are six Independents,  including Sriramulu. Though the BJP is confident of Gowda’s victory, it has decided to take all its MLAs to a resort on Wednesday morning. All MLAs will be ferried to the resort from the Legislature Home and they will be there till Thursday morning. “We have been asked to assemble at LH at 8.30 am on Wednesday. All MLAs will be brought to the Vidhana Soudha directly from the resort,” a BJP MLA said.However, the party leadership has been maintaining that the resort meeting was aimed at educating MLAs on the procedure of voting for the elections and not due to the fear of cross voting. Meanwhile, the Congress, which has fielded a political novice Anand Gaddadevaramath, hoping to encash on the Sriramulu factor, is also issuing a whip to its members. This apart, the party is holding parleys with JD(S), Independents and three Sriramulu supporters seeking support for its candidate. But to its dismay, the JD(S), which waged a war against the state government, is said to have remained non-committal on supporting Anand Gaddadevaramath.According to JD(S) sources, the party was in two minds on the issue. While JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda wants his MLAs to abstain from voting, party chief Kumaraswamy is said to be keen on voting against the CM. The JD(S) legislature party meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, will take a final call in this regard.