Guwahati, July 22: As many as 22 Opposition legislators in Assam have cross-voted in favour of NDA’s Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, who secured a landslide victory to become the country’s 15 President on Thursday.
Altogether 124 MLAs of the 126-member Assam Legislative Assembly had exercised their franchise in the Presidential election on July 18, with two legislators from AIUDF unable to vote as they were outside the country.
The BJP-led alliance in Assam has a total strength of 79 apart from three MLAs from BPF which partners BJP within the Assembly.
Murmu secured 104 MLA votes from Assam, while joint Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha bagged 20, even as there are 44 Opposition MLAs (27 from Congress including three suspended legislators, 15 from AIUDF and one each from CPI-M and Raijor Dal) in the state Assembly.
Meanwhile, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while speaking to mediapersons on Friday, claimed that about 15 to 16 of the 22 MLAs who cross-voted are from Congress.
“I think that the MLAs from constituencies, mainly inhabited by people from Adivasi and tea tribes’ communities, have voted for Droupadi Murmu,” Sarma said.
“The other six to seven MLAs are from AIUDF, other parties or Independents,” he said, while saying that the outcome only indicates the unwavering support of the people of Assam for Droupadi Murmu,” the chief minister said.
Cong chief’s confession
On the other hand, Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah, while congratulating Murmu for her victory, confessed that about four to six MLAs from Congress had resorted to cross-voting.
Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia also admitted that there could be four MLAs from the party who went against the party line and voted in favour of the NDA-nominated candidate.
A group of BJP MLAs from the tea tribes’ community had prior to the Presidential poll met some Congress legislators (mainly from constituencies having an Adivasi/tea tribe population) seeking their vote in favour of the NDA-nominated candidate.
It may be noted that there is no party whip in a Presidential election, which takes place on the basis of a secret ballot.
AIUDF MLA Karim Uddin Barbhuiya had on the day of voting alleged that at least 20 Congress legislators had cast their votes in favour of Murmu.