As India’s law-makers voted to elect the 17th President in an ideological battle involving BJP-led NDA’s Droupadi Murmu and United Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha, fears of cross-voting looms large in Maharashtra.
This has made the Opposition, particularly the Congress red-faced.
The ruling Eknath Shinde-faction of Shiv Sena and BJP has targeted votes from 200-plus legislators from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, there are fears of cross-voting by NCP-Congress MLAs.
The electoral college from Maharashtra comprises 288 seats, however, the current strength now is 287.
Since the Presidential polls involves a secret ballot the BJP is leaving no stones unturned to apply the tactics 10 June Rajya Sabha polls and 20 June Council election - when there was cross-voting in the state with BJP winning all the seats it contested.
“More than 200 MLAs would vote for Droupadi Murmu,” Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said while the voting process was underway.
“We will see a repeat of what happened in the Rajya Sabha and Council polls,” state BJP President Chandrakant Patil said.
It may be mentioned, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government won the trust vote 164-99.
The new government has 106 MLAs from BJP, 40 from Shiv Sena and 10 independents and members of smaller parties.
After this, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction - which has 15 members - extended support to Murmu.
During the trust vote, 11 Congress MLAs were absent and this is a matter of probe by the AICC plus the cross-voting in Council elections.
While the Sharad Pawar-led NCP remains intact, there is vulnerability from the Congress side.
Congress legislature party leader Balasaheb Thorat said that all the party MLAs would vote for Sinha.