BENGALURU/BHUBANESWAR: Four men were arrested in Bengaluru on Sunday for allegedly attempting to bribe eight Congress legislators from Odisha with Rs 5 crore each to vote in favour of BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls, due on Monday. The arrests were made sho-rtly after Karnataka Congress president and deputy CM DK Shivakumar made allegations about “Operation Lotus”. He told reporters, “Four men tried to influence our Odisha MLAs in a hotel by offering them Rs 5 crore each to cross-vote. Following an FIR, all four have been arrested.” Dismissing the allegation, BJP spokesperson Anil Biswal said, “Since Congress is staring at imminent defeat, they’re making false claims.” Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das claimed the arrested men were linked to BJP. Eight of the 14 Cong-ress legislators from Odisha were moved to a Bengaluru resort on Thursday to prevent poaching. Five candidates are in the fray for four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha. BJP has fielded state president Manmohan Samal and re-nominated outgoing Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar, besides backing Independent candidate Dilip Ray for the third seat. BJD has nominated Santrupt Misra while the party is supporting Independent candidate Datteswar Hota, who is being backed by Congress and CPM. With numbers stacked in their favour, BJP’s Samal and Kumar are expected to sail through, as does Misra of BJD. The real battle is for the fourth seat, where Hota and Ray are locked in a tight contest amid fears of cross-voting and allegations of horse-trading.
