"There are doubts that 14 BJP MLAs have cross voted. We will soon set up a committee to probe the matter and identify those who indulged in it", Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
The party had taken the issue "seriously", Shettar said, a day after the Presidential polls, in which UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee received 117 votes in the state while NDA backed P A Sangma mustered 103 votes in the 224-member Assembly. Three votes were invalid while one MLA did not vote.
Mukherjee had a pledged support 98 MLAs -- 71 from Congress and 27 from JD(S) -- but he managed to secure 19 more. Sangma polled 103 votes, though BJP has 119 MLAs.
Shettar said the state unit party President K S Eswarappa, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, has announced a committee into the cross-voting and action would be taken after getting its report.
He, however, refused to comment whether the BJP will issue a whip to its members during the voting on finance bills in the on-going assembly budget session to avert a similar situation.
Shettar who only recently took over as Chief Minister from D V Sadananda Gowda after renewed dissidence, is himself now facing rebellion by a section of MLAs who are unhappy over denial of ministerial berths to them.
