Guwahati, July 26: Amid allegations of cross voting by Opposition parties during the recently-held presidential elections, Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah on Tuesday claimed that “facts and findings” against cross-voters in the party have been collected and would now be presented before the party high command in New Delhi.
Borah said a delegation of the state Congress would leave for the national capital on Wednesday to submit the findings of the situation that has been assessed in regard to cross-voting by the party’s legislators who had gone against the party line and cast their votes in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee.
The principal Opposition party’s leaders, including Borah and Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia, had earlier admitted that about four to six MLAs from the party had voted in favour of the NDA nominee.
Speaking to mediapersons here, the Assam PCC chief said that “no legislator is bigger than the party’ and that the detailed findings would be handed over to the party high command.
“I am cent percent sure that the MLAs who had cross-voted would have to bear the consequences. No MLA is greater than the party,” Borah said.
Assam PCC working president Rana Goswami said that there were six such MLAs from the party who had cross voted in the presidential poll.
“We have gathered proof and details of the mannerisms of the legislators before the poll, the persons they had met….Our inquiry has been taken forward on the basis of these facts and findings,” Goswami said.
As many as 22 Opposition legislators in Assam had cross-voted in favour of NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, who secured a landslide victory to become the 15th President of India.
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.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while speaking to mediapersons, claimed that about 15 to 16 of the 22 MLAs who cross-voted are from Congress.
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.