2 min readBengaluruMar 15, 2026 08:23 PM IST
Two persons were arrested for allegedly trying to bribe Odisha Congress MLAs to cross-vote in the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled on Monday.
According to a police complaint lodged against four individuals, the MLAs, who were staying at a resort in Bengaluru South, were offered Rs 5 crore per vote and lured with a blank cheque. Koraput Congress MP, Saptagiri Shankar, who is accompanying the MLAs, alleged that the MLAs were even threatened with kidnapping if they refused to support the BJP’s candidate.
The Congress had shifted eight of its MLAs from Odisha to a resort in Karnataka Friday, amid fears over cross-voting during the RS polls.
Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar told reporters that four persons had come to the resort and “booked the room at the resort online with help from one Suresh from Byatarayanapura in Bengaluru. After entering the premises they met one of our MLAs in the morning. They were offering Rs 5 crore per vote.”
However, the MLAs are learnt to have refused the bribe. After local Congress leaders were informed, two of the four were handed over to the police. “Two of them have escaped,” Shivakumar said, accusing the BJP of trying to engineer “Operation Lotus” again.
Koraput Congress MP, Saptagiri Shankar, who is accompanying the MLAs, alleged there was an attempt to bribe the MLAs and to cross-vote because the Congress and the BJD had joined hands to support one of the candidates in the polls. Two of the four approached the MLAs at breakfast, he said.
“Four people checked into the resort at 8 pm on Saturday,” he said. While one is a local, Shankar alleged the other three are close to former Union Minister Dilip Ray, who had come from Rourkela.
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Bengaluru South MP Srinivas Gowda told reporters, “The cheque offered and mobile phones (of those who offered the bribe) were seized as per procedure. The police are investigating.”
