At least 12 Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh cross-voted in favour of NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu as UPA candidate Yashwant Sinha received only 79 votes, BJP leaders claimed on Friday.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan thanked all the MLAs other than the BJP who voted for Murmu.
Murmu was elected as 15th President of India.
Other than 127 MLAs of BJP, two independent, one Samajwadi Party and two BSP MLAs supported Murmu, who received 146 votes.
“Draupadi Murmu ji also received votes of MLAs other than BJP MLAs. I wanted to thank all MLAs who listened to their inner voice and voted for the first tribal woman”, the CM said.
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BJP state spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai said, “UPA candidate Yashwant Sinha received only 79 votes from MP while NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu received 146 votes. Five votes were declared invalid. There are 96 Congress MLAs in MP including Sachin Birla, who recently joined BJP. After the election, two independent MLAs claimed to have voted in favour of the UPA candidate. This shows that at least 16 to 18 Congress MLAs voted in favour of the NDA candidate. It showed that Congress MLAs were unhappy with the UPA candidate and wanted to be a part of the historic decision.”
Home minister Narottam Mishra said, “Kamal Nath tried to defame BJP by making a false accusation of luring MLAs and now MLAs listened to their inner voice and voted for Murmu. He has to resign.”
{{/usCountry}}Home minister Narottam Mishra said, “Kamal Nath tried to defame BJP by making a false accusation of luring MLAs and now MLAs listened to their inner voice and voted for Murmu. He has to resign.”
{{/usCountry}}However, Congress leaders refused to comment on the issue.
Leader of opposition (LoP) in the state assembly and senior Congress MLA Govind Singh said, “We will analyse the reason for cross-voting only then we will able to say anything.”
However, before the election, 10 MLAs missed Congress party meetings organised in support of the UPA candidate. Congress state president Kamal Nath also accused BJP of luring tribal MLAs and offering ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore.
In MP, Congress has 28 tribal MLAs out of 47 reserved tribal seats.