New in Northeast | What Murmu’s election says about Assam’s politics

Details of the results and Sarma’s statement led to a flurry of allegations and counter-allegations between the Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the two main opposition parties in the state

Droupadi Murmu’s victory was expected even before the polls were held, but the huge margin of her win on the day of results wasn’t something that many were prepared for.

India's 15th President Droupadi Murmu during her oath ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament, New Delhi, July 25, 2022(PTI)

Details of the vote counting revealed at least 126 legislators from parties outside the non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold went against the official line of their parties and supported the tribal leader from Odisha instead of Yashwant Sinha.

The figure for cross-voting was highest in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Assam where at least 22 opposition legislators voted for Murmu. Minutes after the results, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to social media and claimed Murmu polled 104 votes. This means Murmu got 25 additional votes beyond that of the 79 MLAs the three ruling parties — the BJP, Asom Gana Parishad and United Peoples’ Party Liberal — have in the 126-member assembly.

The shake-up in Guwahati

Details of the results and Sarma’s statement led to a flurry of allegations and counter-allegations between the Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the two main opposition parties in the state. A day after declaration of results, both parties tried to deflect blame to the other while also trying to figure how many of their own cross-voted. The ruling BJP meanwhile thanked those from opposition camp who voted for Murmu for listening “to their conscience”.

On the day of voting, two AIUDF MLAs, who had gone abroad for Haj pilgrimage, were absent. Details of results revealed opposition candidate Sinha got support from only 20 MLAs—significantly lower than the 26 Congress, 13 AIUDF and one legislator each from Raijor Dal and CPI (M).

“As per my knowledge, our candidate got 22 extra votes. At least 15-16 of them have come from Congress MLAs as legislators who represent constituencies that have tribal and tea-community voters’ supported Murmu. Few of the 22 votes came from AIUDF and other opposition members,” CM Sarma said last week.

While Congress has 26 MLA, it is speculated that two of them — one suspended for anti-party activities and another openly supporting the government — voted for Murmu. The NDA candidate could also have got three votes from Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF), a former BJP ally.

“It is now certain that Congress MLAs in Assam cross-voted. Even if we blame every legislator from other opposition parties, it would show that at least 4 of Congress MLAs had cross-voted. I won’t like to comment on what other parties did, but if all our MLAs had voted for Sinha, he would have got 24 votes,” Congress state president Bhupen Kumar Borah said on Friday.

Congress working president Zakir Hussain Sikdar admitted to cross-voting by party MLAs and said that a probe is underway to find out those who went against party line and take necessary action on them.

“It’s very unfortunate that the opposition candidate got only 20 votes in Assam, which shows that at least 4 Congress MLAs didn’t vote for him. The number could be more as well,” said Congress leader of opposition Debabrata Saikia while blaming CM Sarma and BJP of indulging in “dirty politics”.

On the day of voting, AIUDF MLA Karimuddin Barbhuiya had alleged that at least 20 Congress MLAs would vote for Murmu instead of Sinha and claimed that it would be proven true if state votes are tallied after counting.

“We were very clear that our party would support Sinha in this election, but there were rumours that many Congress MLAs could vote for Murmu and put the blame on our party,” said AIUDF MLA and organizing secretary Mohammed Aminul Islam. “As no whip is issued for this poll, we won’t know who voted for whom. Though I feel that all our 13 present MLAs voted for Sinha, there might be some who cast their ballot for Murmu. I can’t say that for sure,” he added.

The churn in Shillong

Assam was not the only state in northeast where cross-voting took place. It was witnessed in Meghalaya too where the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance is in power. The ruling coalition has 48 MLAs in the 60-member assembly while Trinamool Congress has 12.

On day of polling, only 46 of ruling party MLAs voted as two were absent. But results showed that Murmu had secured 47 votes—one more than expected. On the other hand while 10 of 12 TMC MLAs voted — Sinha secured only 8 votes — indicating that one opposition MLA had voted for Murmu as one vote was declared invalid.

Significantly, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had stated ahead of the polling that he expected cross-voting to take place from the TMC camp. This was vehemently denied by the opposition party, but the outcome of the results proved the CM right.

More interestingly, while focus was on extra votes secured by Murmu, in BJP-ruled Tripura, the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha secured two extra votes—indicating that two MLAs either from the saffron party or its coalition partner Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (IPFT) didn’t vote for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate.

The BJP stressed that none of their MLAs cross voted and indicated that it might have happened from the IPFT camp. Two legislators from the party have remained aloof from party activities in recent months and it is speculated that they are the ones who might have voted Sinha instead of Murmu. Since IPFT is a party that represents Tripura’s indigenous tribal people, two votes from its legislators against the country’s first potential tribal president was a surprise.

The views expressed are personal