Presidential poll: Cross-voting boosts President elect Kovind's win
The 71-year-old Kovind defeated joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, after garnering 65.65 percent of the votes in the electoral college.
New Delhi, Jul 20: A large scale cross-voting in seven states throws up a big worry for the opposition, especially ahead of polls in Gujarat and West Bengal later this year.
BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, Kovind's key election manager, claimed close to 116 lawmakers from rival parties, including the Congress, appeared to have voted for the NDA candidate.
The 71-year-old Kovind defeated joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, after garnering 65.65 percent of the votes in the electoral college.
A former Bihar governor, Kovind received 2930 votes with a value of 7,02,044, said election Returning Officer Anoop Mishra. Kumar got 1844 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.
In
Maharashtra,
the
NDA
nominee
got
20
votes
more
than
the
alliance's
strength
of
188
in
the
state
assembly.
Chattisgarh,
Madhya
Pradesh,
Haryana,
Goa,
Uttar
Pradesh
and
Delhi
are
among
other
states
that
witnessed
cross-voting
in
Kovind's
favour.
"Going by the opposition's strength in the Maharashtra Assembly, Meira Kumar should have got 90 votes, but secured only 77," a jubilant state BJP chief spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told PTI.
"The
opposition
owes
an
explanation
to
the
people
for
the
loss
of
these
13
votes,"
Bhandari
said.
"Going
by
the
BJP-led
alliance's
strength,
Kovind
should
have
got
at
least
185
votes
-
122
of
BJP
and
63
of
Shiv
Sena
-
plus
votes
of
other
alliance
partners,
but
he
got
208
votes,"
Bhandari
said.
On the other hand, Kumar should have pocketed at least 90 votes - 83 of Congress-NCP combine, three of PWP, one of CPM, two of MIM and one of SP, Bhandari said. But she got only 77 votes, he said.
Of the 288 MLAs in the state, 287 had voted in the July 17 poll. At least three of Goa's 16 Congress MLAs were also suspected to have voted for Kovind.
"Yes,
there
was
cross-voting.
We
have
called
a
special
meeting
of
the
Congress
Legislature
Party
tomorrow
to
discuss
the
issue.
We
want
to
find
out
who
have
cross-voted,"
Leader
of
Opposition
Chandrakant
Kavlekar
said.
In
the
40-member
Goa
Assembly,
whose
current
strength
has
been
reduced
to
38
due
to
resignation
of
two
MLAs,
the
BJP
has
12
members,
Congress
16,
GFP
and
MGP
three
each,
Independents
3,
and
NCP
1.
Presuming that all 12 MLAs of the BJP, besides three each of its allies GFP, MGP and three independents voted for Kovind, his tally would have stood at 21. However, he clinched 25 votes.
Reacting to the instances of cross-voting, Bhupender Yadav took a dig at Meira Kumar for her appeal to the electoral college for a "conscience vote". "Many lawmakers of the Congress followed their conscience and voted for Kovind," he said, taking a swipe at Kumar.
He claimed out of the 116 opposition lawmakers who appeared to have voted for the NDA candidate, 30-35 were MPs.
PTI