Cross-voting by Opposition high in Gujarat, Goa

New Delhi: The ruling NDA virtually broke the Opposition ranks by ensuring cross-voting in favour of President-elect Ram Nath Kovind.

Cross-voting in favour of Mr Kovind took place in many states, particularly in Gujarat and Goa, where the Congress was facing an internal rebellion of sorts.

The BJP claimed that a total of 116 MPs and MLAs of the Opposition voted in favour of Mr Kovind.

Senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav said, “I would like to thank 116 MPs and MLAs of the other side who listened to their conscience and voted in favour of Kovind ji.”

In Gujarat, which has 60 Congress MLAs, the Opposition presidential candidate managed to get 49 votes. Eleven votes were cast for Ms Kumar. A total of 13 MLAs cross-voted in favour of Mr Kovind. Notably, senior leader Shanker Singh Vaghela has been giving mixed signals in the state as he wants to be declared the chief ministerial candidate.

Similarly in Goa, Ms Kumar got 11 votes, but the state has 17 Congress MLAs.

BJP sources said that in Maharashtra, 23 Opposition MLAs voted for the NDA candidate, and in Karnataka, where the Congress is faction-ridden, 12 Opposition votes were cast in favour of Mr Kovind.

Eight MLAs cross-voted for Mr Kovind in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav declared that he voted for Mr Kovind, following orders from his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Other states where cross-voting took place are Tripura (7), Telangana and Madhya Pradesh (six each), and West Bengal, Assam and Manipur (5 each).

The maximum number of invalid votes polled were 21 in the Parliament and among states, it was highesr in West Bengal which had 10 invalid votes polled.

However, the Trinamul Congress was quick to distance itself from any controversy.

“All 211 MLAs of Trinamul voted for Meira Kumar. We do not know what MLAs of other parties may have done,”  the party said in a statement.