Team Herald
PANJIM: In a shocker for the Congress, four MLAs are likely to have voted in favour of NDA Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind and one had his vote invalidated, exposing further the widening divisions in the party.
Shocked by this, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Chandrakant Kavalekar has decided to recommend to the High Command that action be taken against the dissidents. “We are shocked with the news of cross voting. We all were united and had even voted together. This is something shocking. Yes, we doubted some, but trusted all,” Kavalekar told Herald.
He said the party high command would be informed about the cross voting and action against the rebels would be recommended.
Interestingly, Kavalekar had called for a CLP meeting on the day of polling and it was decided that all the MLAs would vote after the meeting. However, sources said that five MLAs voted and then attended the meeting.
“This is second time we are being hit by rebellion. The High Command will have to take some action to ensure that such things are not repeated,” Kavalekar said, referring to the upcoming Rajya Sabha election scheduled on July 21.
The State with 38 MLAs – 21 of the BJP-led coalition, 16 Congress and one Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – saw 100 percent voting for the President polls held on July 17.
BJP, MGP, Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Independents with 21 MLAs had announced their support to Kovind, while NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, who maintained silence on his support, had attended Kovind’s campaign meeting in Goa.
When the results were declared, Kovind got 25 votes as against the media speculation of 22 votes. He polled 500 votes (20 votes from each MLA), indicating wide cross voting in the Congress party, whose candidate Meira Kumar bagged only 11 votes (220 votes as 1 MLA = 20 votes).
The embarrassment for the Sonia Gandhi-led party continued further, when news came that one of their MLAs’ votes is likely to have been declared invalid
This is second instance in last four months that Congress has been hit by open rebellion. First, was on March 16, when then MLA Vishwajit Rane abstained from voting on the Floor of the House against the confidence motion and then resigned as MLA and from the Congress to join the BJP.
