Vice Presidential polls | Opposition stumped as 13 lawmakers cross vote

New Delhi: Opposition did not leave any leaf unturned to ensure that all its 324 MPs cast their votes in the Vice Presidential election but the outcome left the political managers with a rude shock as at least 13 lawmakers from their flock jumped the ship to support rival NDA’s C P Radhakrishnan.

Opposition joint candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy was left with only 300 votes, 24 down from what was expected, while Radhakrishnan got 452 against a promised 439. Fifteen votes were rendered invalid with the BJP claiming that some of the ballots were marked in a wrong manner deliberately.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion with NDA having the numerical strength with 11 YSR Congress MPs announcing support, but to the surprise of the Opposition, the NDA got 13 more votes. This happened at a time, the Opposition felt that if they managed 315 votes, it would serve their purpose.

The cross-voting and invalid votes did not help Justice Reddy, who also had the opportunity to rewrite Sushil Kumar Shinde's 2002 record of securing 305 votes for a losing candidate.

In a bid to ensure that it shone better at the end, sources said that the Opposition even nudged BRS and BJD to abstain from voting as they were not inclined to vote for Justice Reddy. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath is learnt to have reached out to the BJD leadership while a few Congress and Trinamool Congress leaders worked their lines with the BRS.

While the Opposition is yet to make an assessment on possible cross-voters, a section of the Opposition managers are pointing fingers at a few AAP, NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs. While some of the AAP MPs, according to them, have been soft towards the BJP, a section of the Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs want to leave the I.N.D.I.A bloc and join hands with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh, however, said the opposition “stood completely united” and its performance was “undoubtedly respectable”.

He said Justice Reddy secured around 40% votes this time against 26% in 2022 Vice Presidential polls while insisting that the BJP's “arithmetical victory is in reality a defeat both morally and politically. The ideological battle continues unabated”.

The Opposition is counting the 300 votes polled by Justice Reddy as a silver lining, it negates the meticulous planning by the Congress and its allies to send a political message.

Special care was taken to ensure that all were present with MPs who were abroad made to return. Three Trinamool MPs and an AAP MP, who had health issues, were also flown to Delhi for the voting.

During the voting, the entire Opposition was coordinating to ensure that all MPs vote. Congress assigned coordinators to deal with pointsmen of allies and were seen checking frequently with them about their party MPs casting votes.

With Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge’s office becoming the nerve centre for Opposition action, Congress coordinators were seen feeding Ramesh with information about Opposition MPs casting votes at regular intervals.

At one point in the afternoon when he was told about actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan not turning up yet for voting, Ramesh dialled a senior DMK leader to check and later ensured that the MNM MP cast his vote at 3 PM. Congress Whip Syed Naseer Hussain too was on phone with coordinators collecting details and coordinating with leaders to ensure 100% voting.

“Our main focus was to get all Opposition MPs to vote. BJP was trying to lure our MPs but that did not happen,” Congress Rajya Sabha Whip Syed Naseer Hussain told DH. He said he was expecting BRS and BJD to vote for Justice Reddy as they had joined hands with the Opposition on voting against Waqf Bill and impeachment of Justices Yashwant Varma and Shekhar Yadav.