Let Central agency probe horsetrading

BHUBANESWAR: Former Union minister Braja Kishore Tripathy on Monday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to engage an independent central agency to probe the alleged horsetrading during the Rajya Sabha election last year in the State.While the Election Commission is the competent authority to conduct a probe into the unconstitutional practices adopted by the ruling BJD during the Rajya Sabha election, it should not rely on the report of any officers of the State Government, Tripathy told mediapersons here.The Commission has the power to conduct an inquiry through an independent central investigative agency or a judicial magistrate. Since the Commission is seized of the matter and has the transcript of the audio tape of the conversation of two ministers of the Naveen Patnaik Government, it should act quickly without waiting for a report from the Government.The ruling BJD adopted all illegal means to ensure the victory of its third candidate and this had been exposed by the media. The ECI should find out the truth and take necessary action to stop the criminalisation of politics, he said.Even as none of the Opposition political parties registered a formal complaint before the Election Commission, the latter took cognizance of the case after the State Government referred the matter to it. The commission had sought details from the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) about the alleged horsetrading.Earlier, the Chief Minister had referred the matter to the Home Department for a probe. Three Opposition MLAs one from BJP - Bhimsen Choudhury - and two from the Congress - Gregory Minz and Shivaji Majhi - abstained from the poll which led to the victory of all the three BJD candidates. The BJP suspended Choudhury from the party last year while Majhi was suspended by the Congress after the audio tape came to the fore.The BJP recently referred Choudhury’s case to the Assembly Speaker requesting appropriate action against him. The two Congress MLAs appeared before the disciplinary committee of the party headed by former minister Narasingh Mishra and gave written explanation about their abstentions from the elections ignoring the party whip.