BJP spent Rs 14-15 crore each to buy MPs in V-P polls, says TMCs Abhishek Banerjee

In the vice-presidential election, BJP-led NDA’s candidate, CP Radhakrishnan, defeated the INDIA bloc’s B Sudershan Reddy. Of the 787 votes cast, the NDA candidate got 452 votes, Reddy 300. Fourteen MPs abstained, while 15 votes were declared invalid.

“On behalf of our MPs, all 41 – 28 from Lok Sabha and 23 from Rajya Sabha – were present and voted for our candidate, B. Sudershan Reddy… Since this was a secret ballot vote, it’s difficult to say whether there was cross-voting or whether Opposition members’ votes were discarded… Everything is speculation. One theory could be that all Opposition members voted, and if all 15 Opposition votes were discarded, then cross-voting could not have happened. If you consider a 50-50 split, then it may be that 5-7 people cross-voted,” he added.

Accusing the BJP of “playing the game of money” in the 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal, and in the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly Elections, the Diamond Harbour MP said: “There are so many elections where, in the tussle of money, MLAs have been bought and sold and governments have collapsed… In 2024, too, they (BJP) tried to buy polling agents by paying Rs 5,000 to some and Rs 10,000 to others. They spent thousands of rupees buying polling agents. But the people of Bengal voted for Trinamool. Bengal’s people showed them that leaders can be bought, but not the people.”

‘If Lok Sabha is dissolved and SIR is held, TMC will back it’: Abhishek

On conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the TMC leader said that his party will fight against it inside and outside the court. “The Election Commission has not been able to answer the questions we have raised. They have also faced opposition in the Supreme Court, where the apex court clarified that they will have to accept Aadhaar as the twelfth document for identity proof. Here, they have already lost.”

“If the EC wants to eliminate dead or ghost voters, then this is the same voter list on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi got elected in 2024. If that list is invalid, then the current elected government, the PM, and the Cabinet are all invalid. In that case, they should resign, dissolve the Lok Sabha, and conduct an SIR across the country. In that case, we will support it.”