Bhopal, 9 June  

Alleging poaching attempts by the BJP, the Congress on Tuesday shifted to Bengaluru 35 of its 62 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh who are eligible to vote in the 18 June Rajya Sabha elections.

The first batch of 35 MLAs left for Bengaluru with their family members by a charter flight, said a party leader. "The rest will leave by evening," state Congress Media Cell Chairman Mukesh Nayak told PTI, adding that Leader of Opposition in the assembly Umang Singhar accompanied them.

The Congress decided to move its MLAs to party-ruled Karnataka to keep its flock together and prevent cross-voting, said another leader.

The 230-member State Assembly makes up the Electoral College for the 18 June elections to the Upper House of Parliament. With the assembly's effective strength being 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win. The ruling BJP, which has 164 MLAs, is assured of winning two seats with 116 votes, while the Congress can win one seat.

The saffron party initially fielded its national general secretary Tarun Chugh and state unit secretary Rajneesh Agrawal. Subsequently, it fielded Mahesh Kewat, chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Fishermen Welfare Board, as a third candidate, thus adding a twist to the election.

The Congress nominated former MP Meenakshi Natarajan as its sole candidate.

Talking to reporters, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh, who vacated the third seat after the completion of his second term in the Rajya Sabha, claimed that the BJP was seeking to defeat a woman candidate while professing to support women's reservation in legislatures.

"The BJP has been making tall claims about implementing the Women's Reservation Bill, but in reality, it has always opposed it. When the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, introduced women's reservation in Pachayati Raj bodies, the party had opposed it. Even the RSS is anti-women as no woman can become a 'Pracharak' in the RSS," he said.

"So today when the Congress has fielded a woman candidate for the third seat, the BJP has pitted against her a candidate whom it had expelled from the party in 2022. This has exposed the BJP and its discipline. Our 62 MLAs will ensure victory of the Congress candidate with their full might....Meenakshi Natarajan will get all 62 votes and even more," said the former chief minister.

The Congress Legislature Party held a meeting late Monday night at Singhar's residence and the legislators were consulted about the proposal to move them out of Madhya Pradesh, sources said. Sixty MLAs attended the meeting, they said, adding that one MLA did not attend because he was in Delhi, while senior leader Kamal Nath participated online.

Speaking to PTI, LoP Singhar alleged that the BJP was trying to "buy" Congress MLAs. Some party MLAs told him that BJP members had approached them with "bags full of notes," but they turned them away, he said, adding that the BJP's "conspiracies" will fail on the voting day.

Yadavendra Singh, another state Congress legislator, said some MLAs were not in favour of being moved out, but since it was the party high command's decision, everyone was being shifted. He reiterated the allegation that the BJP was attempting to poach Congress MLAs.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has barred Mukesh Malhotra, Congress MLA from Vijaypur in Sheopur district, from voting. A petition has also been filed in the HC seeking the termination of the assembly membership of Nirmala Sapre, MLA from Bina in Sagar district. She is likely to vote for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha election. Sapre also met with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Monday.

Amid this scenario, Congress's effective tally could getreduced to 62, but it would still have 4 more votes than required to win the election.

Each candidate for the three Rajya Sabha seats requires 58 votes to win. Consequently, the BJP needs 116 votes to win two seats. After garnering 116 of the total 164 votes, the BJP will have 48 remaining votes.

 The Congress appears to be taking a cautious approach in view of the 2020 political crisis, when the BJP toppled the Kamal Nath-led government by bringing Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 other MLAs into its fold. Scindia is currently a minister in the NDA-led Union cabinet.