Presidential election 2022: Ballot boxes start reaching Delhi, check how many lawmakers fail to vote, cross-voted

New Delhi: After closing hours of the polling process for the presidential election in states and Union territories on July 18, 'Mr Ballot Box' carrying votes cast by the lawmakers began their special journey back to the national capital. The counting of votes is scheduled for July 21. According to the Election Commission (EC), each ballot box is issued an e-ticket under the name Mr Ballot Box.

Notably, elected MPs and MLAs are entitled to vote in presidential elections, therefore voting took place in the Parliament house and state legislative assemblies. The Election Commission said polling was held between 10 am to 5 pm Monday at 31 locations including the Parliament house and 30 centres within state legislative assemblies.

The ballot box from the Delhi Legislative Assembly had reached the strong room late Monday night while ballot boxes from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam and Rajasthan were brought here by separate commercial flights, said a PTI report. 'Mr Ballot Box' occupied the front row seat in the aircraft escorted under the watchful gaze of the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) of their respective states.

Maharashtra | Ballot box of Presidential election was taken to Delhi from Mumbai, earlier today

(Source: DGIPR) pic.twitter.com/K1HyxTAPvs — ANI (@ANI) July 19, 2022

The Election Commission posted photographs of the sealed ballot boxes onboard flights accompanied by the respective AROs. The ballot box from Telangana was shown being taken to a strong room in Hyderabad before it started its journey to the national capital on Tuesday.

An Election Commission functionary told PTI that the ballot boxes from state capitals which have direct early morning flights for Delhi would reach by Tuesday noon. The ballot boxes from states which do not have direct flights will arrive by Tuesday evening. Notably, ballot boxes from Himachal Pradesh are likely to be brought by road.

8 MPs, including BJP's Sunny Deol, fail to cast vote 

BJP MP and actor Sunny Deol was among eight MPs who missed casting their votes in the presidential poll on Monday due to various reasons. Out of the eight MPs, two were from BJP, and one each from Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Shiv Sena, AIMIM and DMK, sources told PTI.

Deol is abroad for medical treatment, Sanjay Dhotre, also a BJP MP, is in the intensive care unit at a hospital, while Shiv Sena's Gajanan Kirtikar failed to cast his vote as he was in hospital. BSP leader Atul Singh, who is in jail, could not vote.

AIMIM leader Imtiyaz Jaleel, Congress MP Mohammad Sadiq, SP's Shafiqur Rahman Barq and DMK's TR Paarivendhar were among the eight who did not turn up for voting, the sources said.

To ensure their participation in the presidential election, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was infected with Covid-19, came in a PPE suit while her cabinet colleague RK Singh also used a PPE kit during voting.

Similarly, former PM and veteran Congress leader Manmohan Singh and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav came in wheelchairs to cast their votes. BJP leader Pradipta Kumar Naik, who is the leader of opposition in the Odisha Assembly, also arrived in a wheelchair with an oxygen cylinder straight from the hospital. 

Several legislators say they cross-voted in favour of Murmu

Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their party line in the presidential election. Of these include NCP legislators in Jharkhand and Gujarat, Congress MLAs in Haryana and Odisha. Voting in the presidential election is done through a secret ballot and parties cannot issue whips to their MPs and MLAs.

In Assam, IUDF MLA Karimuddin Barbhuiyan claimed that around 20 Congress MLAs from the state voted for Murmu on Monday.

In Uttar Pradesh, Shivpal Singh Yadav also stated that he would never support Yashwant Sinha, as he had once accused his brother and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of being an "ISI agent". 

Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who cross-voted in last month's Rajya Sabha polls, said he has voted according to his conscience in the presidential election.

Congress MLA in Odisha Mohammed Moquim created a flutter by announcing that he has voted in favour of Murmu as she was a "daughter of Odisha".  In Jharkhand, NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh said that he has voted for NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu.

In Gujarat, the Nationalist Congress Party MLA Kandhal Jadeja also said he voted for Murmu in the presidential election. The Sharad Pawar-headed NCP is one of the constituents of the Congress-led opposition bloc in the country.

An Akali MLA in Punjab, however, boycotted the presidential election citing non-redressal of issues relating to the state.  In Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal legislator Manpreet Singh Ayali decided to boycott the presidential poll, saying issues related to Punjab remain unresolved and he was not consulted by his party leadership before deciding to back the NDA candidate.

With regional parties like the BJD, YSRCP, BSP, TDP, JDS and SAD lending their support to Murmu in the presidential poll, cross-voting by several opposition legislators in state assemblies during polling on Monday is likely to help push her vote share further.

Some parties like Shiv Sena and JMM have already broken ranks with their allies in the UPA to support a woman tribal to become the next President of India. 

The new-found political bonhomie between the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and the BJP was also on full display in the legislative assembly in Uttar Pradesh when Samajwadi Party ally Om Prakash Rajbhar was seen accompanying Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak to cast vote in the presidential election.

The SBSP chief has publicly announced his party's vote for the NDA nominee, signalling cracks in the anti-BJP opposition alliance, which is supporting rival candidate Yashwant Sinha. The SBSP has six MLAs, including Rajbhar, in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

The BJP is seeking to increase the total votes in favour of Murmu to above seven lakh out of a total of 10,86, 431 votes. In the last presidential poll in 2017, NDA's Ram Nath Kovind won by polling 7,02,044 votes out of a total of 10,69,358 votes, against Meira Kumar of the UPA who polled 3,67,314 votes.

(With PTI Inputs)