Bhubaneswar, March 13 -- The Congress has sequestered nine of its Odisha legislators in a resort in Karnataka, while the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) started a three-day bootcamp at party chief Naveen Patnaik's residence to prevent cross-voting in the razor-thin battle for the fourth seat in the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for next week.

The aggressive gatekeeping operations come against the backdrop of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) extending its support to Dilip Ray, a former union minister who is contesting the Rajya Sabha election as an Independent.

The Congress, which has 14 MLAs in the Odisha assembly, sent nine of its MLAs to a resort just outside Bengaluru on Thursday night. According to party leaders, the nine MLAs along with Od...