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Journalism of Courage
Voting in one of the most bitterly contested presidential polls that is set to elect a woman president for the first time ended today with UNPA constituents AIADMK and MDMK doing a stunning U-turn on the newly constituted group’s decision to abstain while dissident BJP MLAs in Gujarat voted for the UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil.
Though counting of votes will take place on Saturday, a Gujarat BJP dissident claimed 15 MLAs and 3 MPs had defied the party and opted for cross-voting. Dissidents in the INLD in Rajasthan, Samajwadi Party in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and TDP in Andhra Pradesh — all three parties are members of the UNPA — also went against the group’s decision to abstain.
At the end of the day, 682 of 770 MPs (88.5%) and 3,755 of 4,170 MLAs (90%) of MLAs had cast their votes. Patil’s poll manager P R Dasmunsi said the UPA candidate was set to get “more than our projected strength”.
Though Leader of Opposition L K Advani — independent candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was backed by NDA — maintained “we will fare well”, his party was battling a crisis in Gujarat where party rebel Dhirubhai Gajera was blunt: “Our logic was quite simple. We knew that Shekhawat was nowhere near victory. So we wanted this opportunity to embarrass Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his mentor L K Advani.”
But what created ripples this morning was the decision by MLAs and MPs of the AIADMK and MDMK to vote, giving rise to speculation about a possible rift in the UNPA.
By evening, AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, who herself abstained from voting, issued a statement, blaming the Election Commission for creating “extreme confusion” with its “unwarranted and unnecessary note” on Tuesday that stated MPs and MLAs could abstain from voting but a party could not issue a whip. This, she said, was the reason why her partymen had gone against the UNPA decision to abstain from voting.
She said her partymen were “accustomed to receiving clear directions and detailed instructions from me as their general secretary on all important occasions and issues” and since no directions had been issued by her on the elections, AIADMK MPs and MLAs “were thrown into confusion” because of the EC note.
She claimed she learnt of the party move only when she returned to Chennai in the afternoon. But AIADMK sources said Jayalalithaa had instructed all 60 party MLAs and Rajya Sabha members to be present at her office in the state secretariat at 9 am, an hour before polling was to begin.
AIADMK MLAs rushed to Chennai from different parts of Tamil Nadu and turned up at the secretariat this morning. There they found party leader O Panneerselvam waiting. A short while later, the MLAs were seen queuing up to cast votes.
The buzz here is that by backing Shekhawat, Jayalalithaa is keeping her political options open. She is said to be upset that the UNPA announced SP’s Rasheed Masood’s candidature for Vice-President without “proper consultations”.
There’s also talk she’s upset with the TDP and SP for holding talks with the CPM on a Third Front possibility without keeping her in the loop. In a magazine interview, CPM’s Prakash Karat had hinted that he had been in touch with SP and TDP over “what shape this third alternative can take.”
