What should cause concern among the Opposition, including the Congress, the left and the TMC, is that their candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi got only 19 votes more than their presidential nominee Meira Kumar even though 40 more MPs had pledged support to him. The BJD and JD(U), which had voted for NDA’s Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, had backed Gandhi for the Vice President’s post. Together, they accounted for the 40 MPs.
Meira Kumar had received votes of 225 MPs, while Gandhi bagged 244 votes. Kovind had received 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.
However, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday said the votes in favour of Gopalkrishna Gandhi increased by 19 (from 225 to 244 votes) in the vice-presidential election compared to the President’s election, which according to him was a positive thing.