Rajya Sabha polls: Congress relocates Madhya Pradesh MLAs to Karnataka, levels poaching charge at BJP

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh, Congress leaders on Tuesday alleged poaching attempts by Bharatiya Janata Party and shifted its MLAs to Congress-ruled Karnataka to prevent cross-voting."All Congress MLAs are being shifted to Bengaluru in party-ruled Karnataka," Saunsar MLA Vijay Revanath Choure told news agency PTI.This comes after the Congress Legislature Party held a meeting late Monday night at the residence of leader of opposition in the MP assembly, Umang Singhar. The legislators were consulted on the proposal to move them out of Madhya Pradesh until polling, PTI reported, citing sources.Nearly 60 Congress MLAs attended the meeting. One party MLA did not attend the meeting because he was in Delhi, while senior leader Kamal Nath participated online.Talking to PTI, Singhar alleged that the BJP was trying to "buy" Congress MLAs and said all of them would be shifted to a party-ruled state.He claimed some party MLAs told him that BJP members approached them with "bags full of notes", but they turned them away.BJP's "conspiracies" will fail on the voting day, the Congress leader asserted.Congress MLAs Yadavendra Singh and Babu Jandel also confirmed that the legislators were being moved to Karnataka.Meanwhile, Singh said that some MLAs were not in favour of being moved out, but since it was the party high command's decision, everyone was being shifted.The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly forms the electoral college for the Rajya Sabha election. With the House's effective strength reduced to 229 due to a vacancy, a candidate needs 58 first-preference votes to secure a seat in the Upper House.The BJP currently has 164 MLAs, while the Congress has 64 and the Bharat Adivasi Party one. The Assembly strength fell by one after Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti's membership from the Datia constituency was revoked.On paper, the BJP has enough numbers to comfortably win two of the three seats, requiring 116 votes in total. After securing those two victories, it will be left with 48 votes — 10 short of the 58 needed for a third seat. The Congress, meanwhile, has four votes more than the minimum required to elect its candidate.Even so, the party appears unwilling to take any chances. The move comes against the backdrop of the 2020 political crisis, when the Kamal Nath-led Congress government collapsed after Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22 MLAs switched sides to the BJP.Ahead of June 18 elections, BJP is assured of winning two seats with 116 votes and has fielded party national general secretary Tarun Chugh and state unit secretary Rajneesh Agrawal.The BJP has also fielded Mahesh Kewat, chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Fishermen Welfare Board, as its third candidate.The Congress has nominated former MP Meenakshi Natarajan and expressed confidence of retaining enough support to secure her election, while Kewat's entry has added a new dimension to the contest.