'Nearly Two Dozen Opposition MPs Voted for Venkaiah Naidu'

New Delhi: BJP sources said on Saturday that nearly two dozen Opposition MPs voted for the NDA's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

Naidu secured 516 votes against the pledged support of around 495.

The former Union minister secured over 68 per cent of valid votes while Gopalkrishna Gandhi got 32 per cent. Indeed, the margin between two contestants — 272 — was more than the votes garnered by Gandhi, 244.

Outgoing Vice-President Hamid Ansari had prevailed over his rivals by 252 and 233 votes in 2012 and 2007 polls, respectively.

The fact that their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar should be a matter of concern for the Opposition parties.

Kumar had received votes of 225 MPs, while Gandhi was supported by 244. President Ram Nath Kovind got the support of 522 MPs.

The BJD, which has 28 members in Parliament, and the JD (U) with 12 MPs had switched over to the opposition camp after supporting the NDA in the presidential poll.

Despite desertion by 40 MPs, the NDA's vote count went down by only six, underlining major cross-voting in its favour.

In an electoral college of 785 eligible members, 771 votes were cast out of which 11 were declared invalid, according to officials.

Among the 14 members who could not cast their votes for a variety of reasons, four belonged to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, two each to the BJP, Congress and the IUML, and one each to the NCP and PMK. One nominated and one Independent member also could not cast their votes.

Polling officials said this was the highest turnout in the vice-presidential election. Before it, the highest number of votes in the poll was 759 in 2002 when BJP candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had won the election.

(with PTI inputs)