Shekhawat to solicit support from all MPs and MLAs: NDA

New Delhi, July 12 (UNI) Defending Leader of Opposition L K Advani's call for conscience voting in the presidential elections, the NDA today asserted that the alliance-backed candidate Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat will seek support from all MPs and MLAs.

''It is the right of both Mr Shekhawat as well as UPA nominee Pratibha Patil to contact and seek the support of all MPs and MLAs as there is nothing illegal or immoral or unconstitutional about it and the voters can exercise their franchise in any manner they liked without attracting the provisions of anti-defection laws,'' Ms Swaraj said.

Spokesperson for Mr Shekhawat and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj told newspersons here that Mr Advani had sent a letter urging each member of the electoral college to cast a ''conscience vote''.

Mr Shekhawat has been contacting the MPs and MLAs of all hues and affiliations seeking their support in the presidential polls, she said, while pointing out that party whips were not effective in Presidential elections.

She said the presidential polls were replete with precedences where political party leaders had sought conscience voting. She observed that in 1969 former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had urged the electoral college to cast their 'conscience votes' in favour of Mr V V Giri in preference to her Congress party's official nominee Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and also in 1967 she had sought 'universal support' for Dr Zakir Hussain.

Even in 2002, CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu had sought the MPs and MLAs to cast their conscience votes in favour of Left-parties nominee Capt Lakshmi Sehgal, she added.

UNI