Bhubaneswar, June 30: Fear of cross-voting has begun to haunt major political parties in the state as the presidential poll heat builds up.

The BJD, which is still recovering from the shock of a failed coup attempt against chief minister Naveen Patnaik, appears more worried than the others.

Senior party leaders admit that secret ballot voting on July 19, the first such occasion after the abortive mutiny, would be an acid test of loyalty for the party MLAs.

There is considerable anxiety in the Congress camp as well given Opposition nominee P.A. Sangma’s tribal appeal and his call for “conscience vote”. But it is nothing compared to the level of concern on the same issue within the BJD.

Admitting that checking cross-voting was a difficult proposition, senior BJD leader Damodar Rout said: “Even if the party issues a whip, it is unlikely to have any impact on the voting pattern. It is because of this that Sangma has urged MPs and MLAs to vote according to their conscience.”

Though BJD leaders have been making outward assertions of unity and loyalty and reiterating their support for Sangma, a sizeable section within the party is being wracked by anxiety with the failed coup having generated an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. Former minister and MLA Aurobinda Dhali said: “We will urge the chief minister to devise a system to find out the voting pattern of the party MLAs.”

His views were also echoed by some other MLAs. “We are really worried on this account. When the chief minister returns from Delhi, we will raise the issue before him and ask him to call a meeting of party MLAs and MPs to sort out these issues ahead of the presidential poll,” said a senior MLA.

Naveen was in Delhi on Wednesday and was present with Sangma when the latter filed his nomination papers.

While senior party leader and government chief whip Rabi Naryan Pani expressed hope that BJD MLAs would be united in voting for Sangma, whose named was first proposed by the chief minister, his colleague and Jagatsinghpur MLA Bishnu Das felt that it had become imperative to devise a method of finding out who was voting for whom.

“That will put an end to all speculation and confusion,” he said.

On the other hand, state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said though his party had full confidence on its MLAs, it would still appeal to them to stick to the party’s decision of voting for Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA’s presidential candidate. At the same time, he ruled out trying to take advantage of the turmoil within the BJD saying that the Congress believed in fair play.

There were similar assertions from the ruling party as well, which denied plans to cause a rift in the Congress to benefit Sangma, who has cleverly played the tribal card.