Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari has summoned all 11 party MLAs of Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi on Tuesday in the light of cross-voting in the legislative council elections earlier this week after securing their resignations from the assembly.
The party has taken a very serious view of the party candidate getting just four votes while seven other MLAs voted for other parties' candidates, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons on Friday.
He said the party has already taken resignations of all 11 MLAs, addressed to the assembly speaker, owning up moral responsibility for the defeat of the party candidate.
In any case, the BJP candidate would not have won as the party did not have 15 MLAs in the 86-member House to get him
When told that these MLAs deliberately cross-voted, knowing well the party candidate cannot win, to convey their anguish against the state party leadership, Prasad shot back that the party has taken a strong view of their indiscipline as they cannot vote like this for whatsoever grievance they may have.
If they had grievances against the state party president, they should have approached the central leadership, Prasad said, adding that they should remember that they have been elected by the people on the BJP ticket and they cannot go against the party like this.
The party could not ascertain who cross-voted as the voting is by secret ballot and hence Gadkari ordered all to put in papers to him that are addressed to the Speaker.
The decision on forwarding them to the Speaker or not will be taken in the meeting he has convened here on Tuesday, Prasad added.
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