In the recently concluded Presidential elections, Congress has suffered a political setback after several of its leaders cross-voted for the NDA President candidate. Notably, 7 state-level Congress Party legislators cross-voted in favour of Draupadi Murmu, defying their parties’ stated support for Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. However, while Congress crumbles, its state leadership seems to be clueless. Reportedly, the Gujarat Congress unit has no idea about its MLAs who cross-voted in favour of the BJP-led NDA’s candidate Draupadi Murmu in the presidential election 2022.
On July 21, Murmu, a tribal leader and former Jharkhand governor, won the election to become India’s 16th President, defeating opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha by a huge margin.
According to a report by TOI, the state Congress chief Jagdish Thakor said that the party is yet to establish the identity of the MLAs who cross-voted in favour of the Presidential candidate pitted by the BJP-led NDA in the 16th presidential election. Moreover, the state unit is also not contemplating taking any action against the MLAs who cross-voted, informed Thakor.
“No action is being taken as of now. It is clear that the MLAs who cross-voted, will shift allegiance to the BJP sooner or later, he said, adding that conducting an inquiry into the same would amount to doubting the loyalty of all MLAs.”
Surprisingly, while the state Congress chief denied conducting any sort of probe to determine the names of the MLAs who cross-voted, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi has said otherwise.
“The party is shocked by the details which emerged during the counting of votes yesterday. Our leadership here has already launched an inquiry to find out the truth,” exclaimed the state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi when asked about the issue.
Notably, Draupadi Murmu, who won the presidential election, got 121 votes from Gujarat, 10 more than the BJP’s strength of 111 in the state Assembly. One of the ten additional votes she received came from a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA, while two more came from the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) MLA. Which meant that she received the support of at least seven Congress MLAs.
Yesterday, Murmu scored a resounding victory, garnering 64% of the total 4,701 valid votes cast, leaving Sinha in the dust. Murmu received 6,76,803 of the 10,56,980 total (4,701 valid votes were cast), and Sinha received 3,80,177.
India’s first tribal president-elect managed votes from all states and UTs, including Kerala where she polled one vote even though the BJP has no MLA in the state.
In AAP-ruled Punjab too, Murmu bagged eight votes even though the BJP has two MLAs. In Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland, Murmu secured 100% votes. Meanwhile, in states like Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, MP, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Murmu attracted significant cross-votes, paving her way to becoming India’s first tribal President.
