BHUBANESWAR: The horse-trading and the kidnapping drama in the 2010 polls fresh in mind, the announcement of Rajya Sabha polls on March 30 has heated up the political atmosphere in the State as elections will be held for three seats. The terms of former speaker of the Odisha Assembly Kishore Kumar Mohanty (BJD), Sushila Tiriya (Cong) and Rudra Narayan Pany (BJP) will be completed on April 3. But as per the present party-wise composition in the Assembly, the Congress and the BJP are set to lose their seats because of inadequate numbers.The BJD has 103 MLAs in the Assembly, including the Speaker, while the Congress has 27. The BJD has the support of four MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), one from the CPI and one Independent. The BJP has six MLAs and has the support of Independent MLA from Nilgiri constituency Pratap Chandra Sarangi.The Congress claims the support of three Independents. A candidate needs 37 first preference votes to win.The BJD has adequate numbers for winning from two seats, but needs two more to win the third seat if all the 146 MLAs vote. If the voting will be less than the strength in the Assembly, the victory of BJD’s third candidate will be easier.However, the third seat can go to the Opposition if there will be an unwritten pact between the Congress and the BJP to support an Independent candidate.The Congress and the BJP will have one vote more than the BJD if the independents will be counted.Besides, the future course of action of the NCP and the CPI is yet to be decided. After the panchayat polls and attack on their party MLA Nabin Nanda, it cannot be said that the NCP MLAs will vote on the dotted lines.For this, the Congress and the BJP will have to support an Independent candidate like the Rajya Sabha polls in 2010. Both the parties will not risk that again in view of the disastrous outcome of 2010 polls. Two Congress MLAs and one from BJP had stayed away as a result of which all the three BJD candidates had won and the Opposition-backed Independent candidate had to lose.Charges of horse-trading against two ministers came to the fore when an audio CD in the media hinted that the Opposition MLAs were allegedly purchased by the BJD to stay away. The Election Commission directed the State Government to investigate the matter following which an FIR was filed by the police on September 13.
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