Polled more votes than expected: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Accepting defeat, Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Saturday congratulated M Venkaiah Naidu on his election as the 13th Vice President.
 
Gandhi, the joint opposition nominee, polled 244 votes against the 516 secured by Naidu to win the election by more than two-third majority.
 
Speaking to the media soon after the election results were declared, Gandhi said the number of votes polled by him was beyond certain calculations.
 
He thanked the MPs, who comprise the electoral college of the vice-presidential election, and the parties who had nominated him as their candidate.
 
“I believe the numbers voted for me are beyond expectation of certain calculations. They represent different political persuasions, they come from different political parties of India,” Gandhi said.

He said the members who voted for him did what they thought was for nation's good, which was the affirmation of the right to free thought, free speech, the right to hold a different opinion and the duty to serve cause of pluralism and secularism in India.

Gandhi said he saw two victories in Saturday's election – one of Naidu and another of free speech. “The second victory belongs to all the people of India,” he said.
 
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury thanked Gandhi for contesting the vice presidential election as the joint opposition nominee.
 
Azad said the increase in the vote share of the opposition was a “positive development”.
 
“In the presidential election, we had got 225 votes of Parliamentarians. This time it was 244,” he told reporters.
 
However, the number was much less that the 270 votes the joint opposition had hoped to poll.
 
To questions on cross-voting, Azad said the opposition parties in their individual capacity will enquire into reports of cross-voting.
 
Naidu polled at least 14 votes more than what the BJP had expected.