Prez polls: BJP eyes 200 votes from Maharashtra as voting takes off in Mumbai

Maharashtra chief minister Shinde has claimed that 200 of the 288 legislators from the state will vote for Murmu, triggering speculation about a split in the votes of the Congress and NCP

Polling for the election of the President of India is underway in Maharashtra; with the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) struggling to keep their MLAs in check amidst reports of cross-voting from their ranks.

Artists paint portraits of presidential candidates Droupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha, ahead of the Presidential elections in Mumbai on Sunday. (PTI PHOTO.)

The Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena has expressed its support for Droupadi Murmu, the nominee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Uddhav Thackeray’s group, which has the support of 15 out of 40 Shiv Sena legislators, has also extended support to Murmu instead of former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who is the nominee of the joint opposition. The Congress and NCP, which are backing Sinha, have a bench strength of 44 and 53 respectively. Two NCP legislators, namely former ministers Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are in jail.

Former energy minister Nitin Raut of the Congress was the first to cast his vote, followed by Babanrao Lonikar of the BJP. The polling will take place till 5 pm. Shinde, NCP leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil and others have also cast their votes.

Maharashtra chief minister Shinde has claimed that 200 of the 288 legislators from the state will vote for Murmu, triggering speculation about a split in the votes of the Congress and NCP. The government has the support of 165 legislators, and the Sena’s 15 MLAs have also supported Murmu. The cross-voting by MVA legislators, especially those from the Congress, whose seven legislators are said to have broken ranks during the legislative council polls last month, and the abstention of 12 Congress MLAs during the Shinde government’s floor test, had added fuel to these rumours.

However, Nana Patole, president, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) denied the possibility of any rift within their ranks and claimed that instead, the Shinde-BJP group, which had huddled it’s legislators in a South Mumbai five-star hotel and brought them to the Vidhan Bhawan by bus, was afraid of a split in its votes.