BJP State leaders summoned to Delhi over cross-voting

Published 19 June 2026 · local

BJP national president Nitin Nabin has summoned the party’s State unit president B.Y. Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok, and in-charge of

BJP national president Nitin Nabin has summoned the party’s State unit president B.Y. Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok, and in-charge of party affairs in the State Radha Mohan Das Agarwal to Delhi on June 23 over cross-voting in the just-concluded Legislative Council elections in Karnataka. The party high command has expressed its unhappiness with the development, and this may lead to a revamp of the State leadership, multiple sources in the party said. The State unit on Friday (June 19) formed a fact-finding committee under the leadership of C.T. Ravi, MLC, to identify cross voters, since these polls are a secret ballot. N. Mahesh and Mahesh Tenginakayi are members of the committee. Sources in the party said the high command will also take independent reports from other leaders. In a significant departure to the party’s stand on Thursday, Mr. Vijayendra on Friday pegged the number of cross voters from the party at “four to five”.

Mr. Ashok had said it was three on Thursday (June 18). This implies that some of the BJP MLAs allocated to the JD(S) candidate also cross-voted. However, sources said that it was extremely difficult to identify who were cross voters, as it was a secret ballot, and unlikely there would be action against individual MLAs. Meanwhile, sources said that if the second preference votes were counted, they could deduct whether MLAs allocated to JD(S) did vote for them or cross-voted. However, BJP candidate Lingaraj Patil won in the elimination round and second preference votes were not counted. Meanwhile, Chandru Lamani, Shirahatti BJP MLA, one of those allocated to vote for the JD(S) candidate, claimed that he and Krishna Nayaka, another MLA, had “honestly” voted for the Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate. “A section of the media unfairly speculated that we may have cross-voted. This has embarrassed us in our constituencies,” he said. ‘Creating division’ Vijayendra said the Congress was trying to speculate on the names of cross voters from the BJP to create divisions within the party.

“There is no question of sparing those who betrayed the party and cross-voted. They cannot hide forever. The fact-finding committee will uncover them and subsequent to that, the party will take stringent action,” he said. BJP candidate Lingaraj Patil, who was allocated 30 MLA votes, got only 27, clearly indicating three cross voters from the party. However, BJP had allocated four votes, including that of Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, expelled MLA, who had announced support to the BJP. His vote was allocated to the JD(S) candidate. But the candidate polled only 14 votes, as against 18 JD(S) MLAs. While JD(S) concedes that four of their MLAs cross-voted and they did not get BJP votes, the BJP on Thursday maintained that their votes were indeed transferred, implying eight from the JD(S) cross-voted. However, Mr. Vijayendra has now pegged it at “four to five”. BJP ‘factionalism’ Meanwhile, the BJP is more worried about the three MLAs — of the 30 allocated for party candidate Lingaraj Patil — who cross-voted.