New Delhi: Business tycoon Vijay Mallya, who is contesting Rajya Sabha elections as an Independent candidate backed by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular), has divided the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnakata unit.
Sources say BJP's central leadership wants the party MLAs to transfer their excess votes to Mallya to defeat the Congress's second candidate.
But Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa does not want to be seen as a Gowda backer by supporting Mallya. Yeddyurappa has convened a meeting of the BJP legislative party to discuss the issue in Bangalore later on Wednesday.
If the BJP MLAs do not support Mallya, then the second candidate of the Congress TV Maruthi will win easily. The Congress has named Oscar Fernandes and Maruthi as its two candidates for the June 17 elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka.
But in Orissa the BJP has officially decided to support a Congress-backed candidate. The party will support Congress-backed Independent candidate Tara Patnaik for the Rajya Sabha seat from Orissa.
The decision to support Patnaik was been taken in order to defeat the Biju Janata Dal candidate Baishnap Parida.
There are three seats for Orissa in the Rajya Sabha. While the BJD is expected to easily win the first two, the third seat is being hotly contested by the BJD and the Congress.
Initially the BJP had decided to abstain which would have meant that the BJD candidate would win. But now it has been decided to take revenge on the BJD.
The BJP and the BJD which were once allies fell out just before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
In Rajasthan, too, the BJP is having trouble after the party announced noted lawyer ram Jethmalani as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Fearing cross voting in elections to the Upper House of Parliament, the BJP has put up all its 79 legislators in a Jaipur hotel to prevent horse-trading and defections.
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