BJP says 11 legislators cross-voted

bangalore: the bjp on saturday reiterated that the party cannot be divided and said the six expelled legislators had voted for industrialist vijay mallya following "inducements." addressing a joint news conference, senior party leader k.s.eshwarappa, legislators s suresh kumar, katta subramanya naidu and r ashok said the party had proof that 11 legislators including those expelled were lured into cross-voting.party legislators gundappa vakil, k.h. hanume gowda, a.krishnappa, c.basavaraju, guruswamy and k. papanna were recently expelled on charges of cross voting for mallya which led to the defeat of the party candidate d k taradevi siddhartha. "their allegations against party leaders are totally false. we have learnt our lessons and will continue to fight for peoples causes. it was unfortunate and surprising that the legislators who had won on the party tickets are now criticising the bjp," they said. the legislators denied that the "sanctum sanctorum culture" exists in the party. all decisions are taken collectively after extensive discussions, they claimed. to a question whether the party was disintegrating vis-a-vis the recent developments, eshwarappa said the party was not depending on legislators for its existence. the party had grown over the last few years only because of its philosophy. "the recent developments have taught us precious lessons which we will use for strengthening the party. it seems the party made a mistake in giving tickets to these legislators and also tying up with the jd(u)," he said. reacting to the challenge posed by mla puttaranganath who has now associated with the dissidents, eshwarappa said legislators who wanted to leave the party can do so and party would gracefully send them out. in a separate news conference, expelled party legislators a manju and n l bharathi shankar levelled charges against union urban development minister ananth kumar and state unit president basavaraj patil sedam. they accused both of amassing wealth over the last few years. "ananth kumar should resign or explain reports about his alleged ownership of a foreign bank. from a humble beginning, he has now grown to the level of owning foreign banks," they alleged and added that sedam has also amassed a 58 acre property after creating false records and forging documents. manju said prime minister a.b. vajpayee would not hesitate to expel union rural development minister m venkaiah naidu and kumar if he is aware of the party developments in the state.