Gujarat Congress Launches Inquiry Into Cross-Voting In Presidential Polls

The Gujarat unit of Congress has initiated an inquiry into the suspected cross-voting by at least seven MLAs in the July 18 presidential election, a party leader said on Friday.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's candidate Droupadi Murmu, who won the election, got 121 votes from Gujarat, 10 more than the BJP's strength of 111 in the state Assembly.

Of the 10 additional votes that she got, one was of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA and two others could be of Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP).

Which indicated that at least seven MLAs of Congress voted for her, a party leader said.

Congress-backed candidate Yashwant Sinha got 57 of the total 178 votes cast in Gujarat.

"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," said state Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi when asked about the issue.

Of the 178 MLAs who cast their votes, 111 belonged to the BJP, 64 (including Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani) were from Congress, two were from BTP and one was from NCP.

NCP's Kandhal Jadeja openly stated after the election that he had voted for Murmu instead of Sinha, the opposition's joint candidate.

BTP MLAs Chhotu Vasava and his son Mahesh Vasava did not disclose their choice, only saying that they had voted for the candidate who would defend the Constitution and tribal rights.

Political parties can not issue a whip to their MLAs or MPs in the presidential poll which takes place through secret ballot.

In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, two seats – Unjha and Bhiloda – are vacant following the deaths of sitting MLAs. Dwarka legislator Pabubha Manek was barred from voting because of a pending court case pertaining to his disqualification, and Khedbrahma MLA Ashvin Kotwal recently resigned from the Assembly.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)