Presidential election: Congress, NCP avoid cross-voting in polls

Of the 283 votes polled in Maharashtra, 279 votes were declared valid. While the NDA bagged 181 votes, the UPA got 98 votes. Four votes were declared invalid. The numbers are likely to give a breather to Congress and NCP, as all their votes seem to have remained intact, avoiding cross-voting in favour of NDA candidate and President-elect Draupadi Murmu.

In all, 97 votes were polled from the two parties – 53 MLAs voted from NCP and 44 from Congress. The UPA has received one additional vote, likely of the lone MLA of CPI(M).

On the day of the election, BJP state president Chandrakant Patil had said that Murmu has received the support of 182 MLAs and there will be cross-voting in her favour to take this figure above 200.

The Maharashtra Assembly has a strength of 288 MLAs, which has reduced to 287 following the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke. Two jailed NCP MLAs – Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh – did not vote. BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap, too, did not vote due to ill health while Sena MLA Mahendra Dalvi did not vote as he was convicted in a case in May.

Following orders by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, the 15 MLAs who have not joined the Eknath Shinde faction, too, voted for Murmu, taking total Sena votes to 55. The BJP’s strength in the Assembly is 106.

The Assembly also has 29 Independent and smaller party MLAs. During the floor test last month, the BJP-Shinde alliance, along with Independents, had polled 164 votes. With the Thackeray faction pledging the support of its 15 MLAs to Murmu, the tally rose to 179. It has gained two additional votes of Independent MLAs, according to figures available.