Cross-votes for Murmu, TMC's abstinence from VP Poll: All's not well in opposition's camp

New Delhi, July 22: A sizeable number of MLAs from across state assemblies cross-voted in support of President-elect Droupadi Murmu, defying their parties' stated support to Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. BJP sources said around 125 MLAs from different assemblies cross-voted in her support.

Counting of votes also suggests that Murmu was the beneficiary of cross-voting from 17 MPs.

Assam, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh assemblies witnessed a significant number of Opposition MLAs voting for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's candidate.

States which saw most cross-voting by MLAs

• Assam: 22
• Madhya Pradesh: 19
• Maharashtra: 16
• Uttar Pradesh: 12
• Gujarat: 10
• Jharkhand: 10
• Bihar: 6
• Chhattisgarh: 6
• Rajasthan 5
• Goa 4

Murmu's tribal background appeared to have drawn support from Opposition MLAs from Jharkhand too, where the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had already announced support to her.

Set to be India's first tribal and also the youngest president, Murmu received maximum votes from Uttar Pradesh and Maharastra assemblies while Sinha got his largest share of support from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

All MLAs from Andhra Pradesh, where the ruling YSR Congress as well the pposition TDP had pledged support to Murmu, voted for her.

On the other hand, Sinha swept all votes from Kerala MLAs as the ruling Left and the opposition Congress had both supported him. Murmu also received all the votes from Sikkim and Nagaland assemblies.

In another setback for the Opposition, Mamata Banerjee-led-Trinamool Congress is likely to abstain from voting in the Vice President election, in which the ruling BJP's candidate is Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Governor of Bengal.

The TMC is reportedly unhappy with the joint opposition's decision to announce Margaret Alva's name without consulting the party.

"Supporting an NDA (VP) candidate doesn't even arise and the way the Opposition candidate was decided, without proper consultation and deliberation with a party that has 35 MPs in both the Houses, we have unanimously decided to abstain from the voting process," TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said in a press conference.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma indicated about the cross-voting from opposition MLAs with his tweet, "Droupadi Murmu polled 104 votes compared to NDA's original strength of 79 in the 126 member Assam Assembly. 2 absent. My heartfelt gratitude to the people of Assam for reposing their faith in the NDA's Presidential candidate & wholeheartedly joining this historic moment."

Murmu, 64, won by an overwhelming margin against Sinha, receiving over 64 per cent valid votes cast by MPs and MLAs, comprising the electoral college, to succeed Ram Nath Kovid to become the country's 15th president.

After the end of the counting process that continued for more than 10 hours, Returning Officer P C Mody declared Murmu as the winner and said the value of votes she got was 6,76,803 against Sinha's 3,80,177.