GUWAHATI:
The presidential polls to elect the 15th President of India had taken place all over the country on July 18, and in Assam, barring two from All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), 124 MLAs, including Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, cast their votes.
After casting his vote, Sarma took to a popular microblogging site and wrote, “I cast my vote for the 2022 presidential election.”
Legislators of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Opposition Congress and AIUDF were seen queuing up at the assembly premises before voting began at 10 am.
In Assam, an MLA’s vote is valued at 116 with the total value being at 14,616, and the ruling NDA has 79 MLAs, including 14 Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and six United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) MLAs. Assam also has a total of 21 MPs, 14 in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha, and the total value of the votes is 14,700.
The ruling NDA has a total of 15 MPs, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having 13 and its allies AGP and UPPL one each. There are two Independent MPs, while Congress has three, and the AIUDF one.
“Murmu’s victory is a foregone conclusion and it will be better if all members vote for her,” education minister Ranoj Pegu said about NDA’s presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu.
Among those in favour of Murmu were MLAs of AGP, an ally of the NDA, seven from UPPL, and three MLAs of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), who have extended support to the BJP-led government and are expected to vote for the ruling NDA candidate.
Apart from AIUDF MLAs Suzzamuddin Laskar and Nizamuddin Choudhury, who were absent as they are in Saudi Arabia to perform Haj, 13 others had come to cast their votes.
The AIUDF had on July 17 announced that it would vote for Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha even though its supremo and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal had earlier announced that the will vote in favour of Murmu.
Several BJP MLAs had visited Ajmal’s residence on Sunday requesting him to again change the decision and vote for Murmu.
“BJP has double standards. On one hand, it says it does not have anything to do with AIUDF, and on the other, it does not hesitate to shamelessly ask for our votes,” AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam said on Monday.
The Congress has 27 MLAs but three of them have been suspended due to anti-party activities and they have not made it clear in whose favour they will vote.
AIUDF MLA Karim Uddin Barbhuyan alleged that there was cross-voting among the Congress MLAs in the election.
“At least 20 Congress MLAs cast their votes in favour of NDA-backed presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. There was a Congress meeting yesterday, it was attended by only two-three MLAs. Only the district president was there. What was the need for a meeting in the Assembly? Clear that Congress is cross-voting, it may be 20 plus. You can see numbers on the day of result,” Barbhuyan told a news agency.