At a time when the opposition Congress needs to strengthen its hold in Gujarat as the assembly elections are a few months away, the party on Thursday received a setback when the results of the presidential elections were announced.
It emerged that as many as seven Congress MLAs voted for NDA’s candidate Droupadi Murmu.
She secured 121 votes that included 111 of the BJP, two of the Bharatiya Tribal Party, one of the NCP and seven of the Congress MLAs from Gujarat.
Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha received 57 votes—56 Congress MLAs and one independent, Jignesh Mevani, voted for him. Gujarat has 182 assembly seats of which four are vacant.
There have been rumours that a few Congress MLAs may quit the party ahead of assembly elections. The cross-voting in the presidential polls sends an alarm bell at a time when assembly elections in the state is expected to be triangular contest with the BJP and the AAP.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said though there is no whip in such elections, cross- voting is unfortunate, and added that he party will find out the reasons that led to this.
The party, nonetheless, does not know which of its MLAs voted for the NDA candidate.
