Taking moral responsibility for cross-voting in the Legislative Council elections, all the 11 BJP MLAs in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday resigned and authorised the party central leadership to decide their fate.
“We [11 MLAS] have resigned and submitted our resignation letters to the party high command tonight to either conduct a probe or decide our fate,” Deputy Leader of the BJP Legislature Party Jugal Kishore Sharma told PTI.
Seven out of 11 BJP legislators voted for the candidates of the National Conference-Congress alliance, which won five of the six seats for which elections were held, and the lone BJP candidate, Ranjit Singh, polled only four votes.
“We have addressed our resignation letters to the Speaker of the Assembly but handed them over to O.P. Kohli, party general secretary in charge of party affairs in the State, and general secretary J.P. Nadha to either conduct a probe or forward the same to the Speaker for acceptance,” Mr. Sharma said admitting it as the “biggest embarrassment for and black spot on the BJP.”
Ashok Khajuria, chief whip of the BJP in the Assembly, who had issued whip to party legislators to vote for the party candidate in the elections, alleged the 11 MLAs “sold themselves for monetary or other considerations.”
