Presidential poll: Cross-voting fears in Maharashtra Congress, NCP

Rahul and Sonia Gandhi. File Pic

As lawmakers from Maharashtra gear up to vote on Monday to elect the country's next president, there are concerns among the opposition parties over the possibility of cross-voting.

MLAs and MPs form the electoral college to elect the President of India.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress - the two main opposition parties in Maharashtra - have already held meetings with their legislators to ensure there is no any cross-voting in favour of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's candidate Droupadi Murmu.

The opposition is concerned as Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday claimed that Murmu would get the support of 200 MLAs from the state.

"We will manage to get the votes of 200 MLAs for Droupadi Murmu. We want a very comfortable win for her," he said.

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha is the candidate of the Opposition.

Notably, cross-voting was held during the Rajya Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls last month.

All five candidates of the BJP had won the Legislative Council polls held for 10 seats, while with its own numbers the BJP could have won only four seats. The Shiv Sena and the NCP won two seats each, while the Congress could only bag one seat.

"There are some concerns in the NCP and Congress over guarding their votes. The Congress already faced an embarrassment in the Legislative Council election when one of its candidate lost against the BJP. We do not want it to happen again," a senior Congress leader said.

The BJP currently has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly along with 40 MLAs belonging to the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, besides 10 independents who support the BJP.

"Without cross-voting, Murmu cannot get the votes of 200 MLAs, as claimed by CM Shinde. If Murmu gets 200 votes, it will be a further setback for the Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena," a political analyst said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena with 15 MLAs has announced support for Murmu.

The NCP and Congress have 53 and 44 MLAs, respectively.

Of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, 23 MPs belong to the BJP, 18 to Shiv Sena, four to NCP, and one to Congress. Of the rest two MPs, one belongs to the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and another is Independent.

Various political parties in the state are also taking extra efforts to ensure none of the votes cast by their MLAs and MPs turn invalid in the presidential election.

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