Heavy cross voting amid a lack of Opposition unity paved the way for a big win for Droupadi Murmu on Thursday as she became the new President of the country. Like other states, in Jharkhand too Opposition MLAs especially those from Congress and RJD camp voted in support of Murmu, defying party line.
In the Presidential election, Murmu got 10 MLAs votes more than the fixed figure in the election. In the election, Yashwant Sinha got only nine votes in Jharkhand. After the announcement of political parties and MLAs, there was support of 60 MLAs in favour of Draupadi. The 60 MLAs vote included 25 from BJP, JMM 30 votes, AJSU 2, Independent two (Saryu Roy and Amit Yadav) and lone NCP MLA (Kamlesh Singh). However, when votes of MLAs from different states were counted the figure reached to 70 indicating that 10 MLAs from Congress or RJD camp voted in support of Murmu. One vote of either Congress or RJD was declared as invalid. Opposition pick candidate Yashwant Sinha received only nine votes from State.
Sources said that Murmu's tribal background appeared to have drawn support from Opposition MLAs from Jharkhand too, where the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had already announced support to her.
Sources said that it is difficult to find out which MLAs have voted in the Presidential election in favour of Murmu. Many tribal MLAs and even some other MLAs have voted in support of Murmu.
As per reports, 22 MLAs from Assam cross voted followed by 19 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, 16 MLAs cross voted in Maharashtra, 12 MLAs cross voted in Uttar Pradesh, 10 MLAs in Gujarat and ten MLAs in Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, on the victory of Draupadi Murmu as the first tribal woman President of the country, a Samman Yatra was taken out by Jharkhand BJP in Ranchi on Friday. This Samman Yatra was taken out from Sahajanand Chowk. During this, the enthusiasm of BJP leaders and workers was building up. Let us tell you that there is an atmosphere of enthusiasm in the BJP when he is newly elected as the 15th President of the country.