Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP Saturday submitted its internal report on cross-voting during the recent legislative council polls, but kept its findings confidential, leaving the next course of action to the party leadership.Senior MLC CT Ravi, who headed the three-member committee, said the report, prepared after a four-day inquiry, identifies areas where the party should have exercised greater internal caution.“Party president Vijayendra had constituted a three-member internal fact-finding committee comprising me, state vice-president N Mahesh and MLA Mahesh Tenginakayi. He directed us to conduct an internal inquiry and submit the report at the earliest,” Ravi said after submitting the report to Vijayendra.“Accordingly, we completed the inquiry within four days and, after discussions among the three of us, submitted the report, which contains findings on which all three members agreed,” he added.Ravi said the committee spoke to BJP candidates, JD(S) functionaries, the leader of the opposition, the opposition chief whip and others after preparing a list of those who came under suspicion based on media reports and other information.Refusing to reveal the findings, Ravi said, “Since it is an internal inquiry report submitted to the state president, it would be inappropriate to disclose further details.” He also declined to say whether the report identified those responsible for cross-voting.Highlighting the voting pattern, Ravi said, “There were 12 instances of cross-voting by NDA legislators. BJP lost four votes, including one invalid. Thirty votes each had been allocated to BJP’s two candidates.” One candidate received 29 votes, with one vote declared invalid, while the other received 27 votes, three fewer than expected. JD(S) should have received 22 votes but got only 14, an eight-vote shortfall,” he added.Rejecting the suggestions that Congress gained support because of its popularity, Ravi alleged the ruling party had engineered the cross-voting through “unethical means”.“When cross-voting happened in other states, Congress said it was against democratic values. By encouraging cross-voting, you too have undermined democracy and have no moral right to question cross-voting in other states,” he said, adding that Vijayendra would decide the next course of action after discussions in the party’s core committee.Congress won five of the seven legislative council seats that went to the polls on June 18, while BJP secured two. JD(S) failed to win the lone seat it contested. JD(S) later decided to forgive its MLAs, saying they had voted keeping in mind the development of their constituencies and to ensure the Congress govt sanctioned funds. The results showed Congress secured 151 votes, 11 more than its strength of 140, indicating cross-voting by BJP and JD(S) legislators.
