Fear of cross voting haunts Chhattisgarh parties

Bhopal: The biennial polls for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Chhattisgarh, scheduled to be held on Friday, may witness a keen contest between the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress.

With fear of cross voting haunting both the parties, the BJP rushed Union health minister J.P. Nadda to Raipur in Chhattisgarh to ensure smooth victory of the party candidate Saroj Pandey in the polls.

“I am going to attend the BJP Legislature Party meeting scheduled to be held prior to the RS polls on Friday. My visit to Raipur in connection with the RS elections is a routine party matter,” he told the media.

The Opposition Congre-ss had decided to field its candidate in the last mo-ment to deny BJP nomin-ee a smooth sailing in the polls. Besides, the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, which has three MLAs, has declared to support the Congress candidate making the polls unpredictable.

While the BJP has strength of 49, Congress has 36 MLAs.

Of the two independent MLAs, Bimal Chopra declared his support to the BJP nominee.

The Congress has fielded former MLA Lekhiram Sahu in the polls.