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Mumbai: The massive cross-voting in favour of President-elect Droupadi Murmu with as many as 126 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) spread across 18 states and 17 Members of Parliament has sent shock-waves in the already embattled Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) camp. Massive cross-voting was reported from states like Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
According to unconfirmed reports, massive cross-voting in favour of Murmu was reported to have taken place from these states – Meghalaya 16, Assam 22, Gujarat 10, Goa 4, Madhya Pradesh 19, Haryana 10, Rajasthan 16 and Maharashtra 16.
The news of cross-voting was confirmed by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who tweeted claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential poll candidate had actually secured 104 votes as against the ruling BJP’s actual strength of 79 in the 126 member Assam legislative assembly. In fact, 22 of the opposition MLAs had voted in favour of President-elect Murmu. Two MLAs from Assam had also abstained from voting.
In Madhya Pradesh, 19 of the opposition MLAs are reported to have cross-voted in favour of Droupadi Murmu. However, the bigger jolt for the Congress led UPA came from the poll-bound state of Gujarat. Here at least 10 MLAs are reported to have cross-voted in favour of the BJP led NDA Presidential poll candidate. It may be recalled that in the 2017 assembly elections the Congress had literally given a scare to the BJP almost running neck to neck in the poll results.
But the cross-voting of 16 opposition MLAs from the Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena faction, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has raised eyebrows. Besides the 16 opposition MLAs cross-voting, 4 MLAs had cast in-valid votes.
Although the NCP has denied that any of its MLAs had cross-voted in favour of the NDA candidate, the sudden dissolution of party office bearers of all the frontal organisations and units has raised quite a few eyebrows.
Ignominy for the Congress led UPA did not end there, Yashwant Sinha had failed to secure votes from his native state Jharkhand. Sinha managed to secure just 9 votes in the 81 member Jharkhand assembly, with the UPA ally, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) throwing its support behind Murmu. As against this, Murmu who hails from Odisha, secured 137 votes out of the 147 votes in the Odisha state assembly.
President-elect Droupadi Murmu is reported to have swept the poll-stakes in BJP ruled Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka.
Electoral prospects for the Congress led UPA in the ensuing Vice-Presidential elections also do not look exciting at all. The All-India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has announced that it would rather abstain from voting in the Vice-Presidential polls.
According to official sources, the BJP led NDA Presidential poll candidate (now President-elect), Droupadi Murmu had secured 2,824 votes with a vote value of 6,76,803. Whereas, her Congress led UPA rival Yashwant Sinha had secured 1,877 votes, with a vote value of 3,80,177.
