Senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitley visited Sudheendra Kulkarni in Tihar Jail on Wednesday.
The visit was aimed at expressing solidarity with the jailed strategist who was a former aide of Advani.
Kulkarni was denied bail by a lower court and sent to judicial custody on Tuesday for his role in the cash-for-votes operation.
Two former BJP MPs, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora, are already lodged in Tihar for their participation in the sting operation.
The BJP claimed Kulkarni and the former MPs were whistleblowers who have been incarcerated for exposing the votes scandal in 2008.
After meeting Kulkarni, Jaitley said: "False entrapment cannot co-exist with bribery while maintaining that whistleblower cannot be treated in the same manner as a bribe giver."
The leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha said: "19 MPs had either crossvoted or abstained during the trust vote and there were open allegations of use of money power to influence MPs.
Delhi Police has accepted that prima facie bribe was paid.... Our MPs were only involved in exposing them (bribe givers) as whistleblowers". Jaitley, while arguing that their arrest was wrong said that after the Supreme Court judgement in the JMM case, the jurisdiction in such matters lies only with Parliament and so they had to inform Lok Sabha about it. During the 2008 trust vote there were allegations of use of money power... Their intention was not to take money. They had exposed it (the act) in the Lok Sabha."
Kulkarni will be in jail till October 1 when his bail plea will come up for hearing.
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