PANAJI: With its party MLAs in Goa resorting to cross-voting in favour of the ruling side candidate for the presidential election, Congress has witnessed yet another political blow within the party.
In a surprising development, the BJP-led NDA candidate for the presidential poll Ram Nath Kovind got 25 votes from Goa whereas the Congress-led UPA candidate Meira Kumar got only 11 votes from the state, which very much clears that there is a split in the Congress legislature wing.
The present strength of the state legislative assembly is 38 as Vishwajit Rane (former Congress MLA) and BJP’s Sidharth Kuncalienkar have resigned as members of the state legislative assembly. The ruling camp has clear-cut 21 legislators which include BJP-12, MGP-3, Goa Forward-3 and three Independents. The main opposition Congress has 16 MLAs whereas NCP has one.
In Goa, the value of each MLA vote is 20. As per the results, NDA candidate Kovind got 25 votes with a value of 500, while the UPA candidate Meira Kumar got only 11 votes with a value of 220. Surprisingly, two MLA votes were declared invalid. It is enough to come to the conclusion that the BJP-led ruling coalition has managed to pull at least four votes from the opposition Congress camp besides the lone NCP MLA Churchill Alemao.
Congress sources said that senior legislator of the party and former chief minister Pratapsing Rane had admitted during the Congress legislative party (CLP) meeting on July 17, the voting day, that he was confused while casting his vote, which needed a marking on the ballot paper.
Sources from the ruling faction said that Goa Forward Party MLA Vinod Palyekar, who is a minister in the government, had made a mistake while marking vote on the ballot paper.
After the presidential election results, it is now clear that Congress, which lost one MLA in the form of Vishwajit Rane, who resigned as legislator within five days after declaration of the assembly election results, has failed to keep its elected members united.
It may be recalled that on July 18, on the first day of the monsoon session, the House had witnessed a rift in the Congress camp as Pratapsing Rane participated in the proceedings of the House when his 15 colleagues staged a walkout on the circular issue.
When asked about this development, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Shantaram Naik, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, said that the party will examine the issue.
Reacting to the cross-voting, leader of the Opposition Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar said that whatever happened was wrong and added that the party needed to examine it. “As far as unity among the party legislators is concerned, it is a matter of grave concern. However, the CLP will have a discussion on it in the meeting to be held on Friday morning.” With cross-voting done by at least four legislators in favour of the NDA candidate, the question now in Congress is who these four MLAs are.
Reacting to the cross-voting in favour of the NDA candidate, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that he congratulates the MLAs from the opposition camp, who have voted for Kovind, for taking the right decision. “Normally, in a presidential election, one has to vote with his inner conscience and it has happened in most of the places,” he said.
