New Delhi: Opposition parties including Congress will on Friday discuss the issue of alleged cross-voting that happened during the Presidential Elections in which NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind emerged victorious.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Kovind's victory was expected given the NDA's numerical superiority over the Opposition, but his presidential bid got a push with lawmakers from rival parties cross-voting for him in several states, including poll-bound Gujarat and Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal.


As per BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, who was also Kovind's key election manager, nearly 116 lawmakers from rival parties, including the Congress, appeared to have voted for the NDA candidate.


The 71-year-old defeated the former Lok Sabha speaker after garnering 65.65 percent of the votes in the electoral college.


Kovind, the former Bihar governor, received 2,930 votes with a value of 7,02,044, said election Returning Officer Anoop Mishra. Kumar got 1,844 votes with a value of 3,67,314.


The states from where Kovind got votes from the rival camp included West Bengal, where the BJP is locked in a bitter, and often bloody, fight with the ruling TMC. Kovind clinched the votes of 11 MLAs in the state, five more than NDA's tally of six.


He also managed to secure votes of seven lawmakers in the Left-ruled Tripura, where BJP or its NDA allies do not have any MLA. These included six TMC MLAs who are likely to join the BJP.


The Congress has much to worry about Gujarat where Assembly Elections are due later this year, with at least eight of its MLAs appeared to have voted for the NDA's candidate. 


The party has 57 MLAs in the state but Meira Kumar got only 49 votes.


The Congress party is gripped by a factional feud in Gujarat between Leader of the Opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela and state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki over who would leader the Assembly poll campaign.


The issue holds significance as cross-voting can wreak havoc for the opposition parties who have declared Goplakrishna Gandhi as their joint vice-presidentioal candidate against NDA nominee Venkaiah Naidu.


Asserting that the cross-voting in the recently concluded Presidential election shows lack of unity in the Congress party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that all political leaders who wished for the better of the nation, have voted for President-elect Ram Nath Kovind.


BJP leader Vishwas Sarang said large-scale cross-voting exposed the vulnerability of the opposition camp.


"I had already told this in advance that let the results come, and the truth of unity in the Congress will come out in open. All the leaders who love this nation have voted for Kovind ji," Sarang told ANI.


Announcing the results, Lok Sabha Secretary General and returning officer Anoop Mishra announced yesterday that Kovind got 2930 votes valued 7,02,044 and Meira Kumar got 1844 votes valued 3,67,314.


Kovind's overall vote value was 661 more than the assured value of 701,382, comprising lawmakers from the NDA and some opposition parties. In contrast, Kumar's total vote value stood at 367,314. 


With Agency inputs