Lucknow: All the 403 legislators of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on Thursday cast their vote for the Presidential poll.
"401 MLAs exercised their franchise in the Vidhan Sabha premises here, while two legislators cast their vote in New Delhi," Returning Officer and principal secretary Vidhan Sabha Pradeep Dubey told reporters here. The two members, who voted in Delhi are BJP MLA from Noida, Mahesh Kumar Sharma, and RLD MLA from Modi Nagar, Sudesh Sharma, Dubey said.
Vidhan Sabha speaker Mata Prasad Pandey was the first to cast his vote.
Prominent among those who were the early voters at the Tilak Hall included leader of opposition Swami Prasad Maurya, BJP leaders Uma Bharti, Kalraj Mishra, party state president Laxmi Kant Bajpai and several ministers.
Controversial MLAs Vijay Mishra and Mukhtar Ansari also cast their votes. "The process was peaceful, ballot boxes have been sealed and will be dispatched to Delhi tomorrow morning," Dubey added. In the 403 member house, Samajwadi Party has 224 MLAs followed by BSP with 80, BJP 47, Congress 28, Rashtriya Lok Dal 8, Peace Party4, Quami Ekta Dal 2, Nationalist Congress party, Trinamool Congress, Apna Dal, Ittehad-e-millat council one each, besides six independents.
Besides the Congress and RLD, SP and BSP have also announced support to UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee who is also expected to get the votes of smaller parties and independents.
PTI