A DAY after the joint Opposition candidate for the Vice-Presidential poll, B Sudershan Reddy, got fewer votes than anticipated, there was hand-wringing and finger-pointing in the ranks.
Trinamool Congress general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee alleged that several MPs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) voted for the NDA’s C P Radhakrishnan. Speaking to reporters at Kolkata airport, he said: “Even if I accept that there was cross-voting, there are certain parties like the AAP, where a woman MP openly supports the BJP (a hint at Swati Maliwal) and speaks against Arvind Kejriwal. There are two-four such MPs.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, senior AAP leader, MP and general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said it was “ridiculous” to blame the party. “All our MPs were together and voted for the Opposition candidate – except for one (Maliwal), about whom everyone knows.”
Pathak also claimed that the party believed something else had transpired. “We activated our sources Tuesday evening, after the result, and have reason to believe that 27 Opposition MPs voted for the NDA candidate and as many as 12 BJP MPs voted for the Opposition candidate.”
The Opposition had hoped that Reddy would get 320-plus votes, but he secured only 300. Radhakrishnan, on the other hand, got 452 votes against the NDA’s own expectations of 440-odd.
Fifteen of the votes were declared invalid, and soon after the result Tuesday, speculation had begun that all were cast by Opposition MPs.
The BJP has also suggested that MPs from Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where Radhakrishnan has been Governor, voted for him across party lines due to the goodwill he had earned for his non-partisanship.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant denied this was a hint at anyone from its ranks. “The Shiv Sena stood strong. All our 11 MPs voted for the Opposition candidate,” he told The Indian Express. Accusing the BJP of spreading canards, Sawant said: “The BJP is desperate for us. It wants us to come back (to the NDA).”
Raising doubts over the invalidation of votes, Sawant said: “Were those MPs (who cast them) illiterate? It must be investigated. Who bought them? This is what the BJP does. They even break up state governments. In Maharashtra, they openly bought (MLAs).”
Banerjee alleged the same, claiming “Rs 15-20 crore” were spent to buy a vote in the election. “I spoke to a few people and learned that they spent Rs 15-20 crore on each person. People elected as representatives are selling people’s trust and emotions,” the TMC MP said, adding: “Representatives can be bought, but not the people.”
Banerjee added that as far as the TMC went, “I can say that all 41 MPs were present and they all voted for our candidate, B Sudershan Reddy.” He added that the fact that it was a secret ballot made it “difficult to say whether there was cross-voting or whether Opposition members’ votes were discarded”.
NCP (SP) MP and its working president Supriya Sule said the NDA should not “malign” Maharashtra by suggesting that Opposition MPs from the state cross-voted. “If 14 votes (went to the other side), did Maharashtra do it? Why are you maligning Maharashtra? Don’t defame the Marathi people,” said Sule.
Attacking the BJP, the Baramati MP said: “Voting was secret, right? Then how did it know that cross-voting took place? The BJP’s Sanjay Jaiswal said there were 40 (extra) votes (for the NDA).” The NCP (SP) has 10 MPs, of them 8 in the Lok Sabha.
On Wednesday, BJP leader and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said “nearly 35” Opposition MPs had voted for Radhakrishnan. He took a swipe at the fact that this was a paper ballot, something the Opposition has been demanding, claiming that EVMs were being “manipulated” by the BJP government at the Centre.
The AAP’s Sanjay Pathak said the party had “ensured all our MPs cast their votes”. The AAP has 13 MPs, including three in the Lok Sabha. “Harbhajan (Singh) ji flew down from Mumbai, despite his mother being unwell, Babaji Sant Balbir (Seechewal) drove down to Delhi… All our MPs voted as per party line… Shri Arvind Kejriwal ji not only met the MPs, but also issued a public appeal to support Reddy since this was not a political battle but an ideological one.”
Congress MP Manish Tewari told The Indian Express: “If at all there is any apprehension, or even an iota of truth in the public speculation about cross-voting, then obviously the INDIA bloc parties must take this seriously and try to establish whether this is correct or otherwise.”
Asked whether the voting being a secret ballot allowed such cross-voting, Tewari said: “That is a fair question. In a secret ballot process, you can’t work out (who voted for whom). But, hypothetically, assuming you have a number and you receive fewer votes than that, it begs the obvious question if something has happened. And if something has happened, then what is it?”
Also calling for introspection, the AAP’s Pathak said: “We are fighting the BJP everywhere, as you can see. Our MLAs, our leaders are being arrested on frivolous and fake charges. We are doing our part honestly; it is for Opposition leaders to ponder on this.”
The Sena (UBT)’s Sawant said that while the Opposition had lessons to learn, the BJP did too. “The Opposition candidate got 300 votes. When Jagdeep Dhankhar contested (as V-P), he had got 528 votes. How did it become 452 (this time)? The BJP must introspect.”