Newsmakers | NCP MLAs who voted for Murmu: A habitual cross-voter, another who chose ‘personal ties’ over party line

Speaking in Gandhinagar after casting his vote, Kandhal Jadeja, two-time MLA from Kutiyana Assembly constituency in Porbandar district of Gujarat, said, “I have voted for the BJP (the NDA candidate)… I have to stay in Gujarat and I vote keeping in mind the development works of my constituency. I do not have my selfish interest in mind while voting.”

In Ranchi, Kamlesh Singh, NCP’s lone MLA in Jharkhand, came out of the Vidhan Sabha and announced that he had voted for Murmu.

“Droupadi Murmu worked for the people of Jharkhand and I also maintained a personal relationship with her. Plus, my constituency has around 9,000 Adivasi votes that hold significance in Assembly elections,” Singh, MLA from Hussainabad constituency bordering Bihar, told The Indian Express.

This is not the first time Jadeja, the MLA from Gujarat, has cross-voted in favour of the NDA. He had voted for BJP candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections of 2017 and 2020 too, inviting show-cause notices from the party.

Despite being the only NCP MLA from the state, Jadeja, 49, is a well-known face. The eldest of four sons of the late MLA Santokben Jadeja, also known as ‘Godmother’, Jadeja regularly made it to the headlines for his run-ins with law enforcement agencies. Until recently, he faced 15 cases of gunrunning, possessing explosives, extortion, assault, forgery, escaping from lawful custody, etc, with at least three of those cases registered during his seven years as Kutiyana MLA. He was recently discharged in two cases under the Arms Act and acquitted in a third case.

However, in April this year, he was convicted in a 2007 case for escaping from judicial custody and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. But since he had already spent 19 months in judicial custody, he escaped another jail stint.

In 2006, while he was lodged in Rajkot Central Jail after being accused, along with his mother and brothers, of the 2005 murder of Keshu Odedra, a BJP councillor in Porbandar municipality, his wife Rekha Jadeja was shot dead by an unidentified gunman at her Rajkot residence.

Around six months after this murder, Jadeja fled from a hospital where he had been admitted and got married to Manisha Karavadra. In 2009, while on the run, Jadeja was arrested from a town near Pune and tried for Odedra’s murder. However, in 2011, a Porbandar court acquitted all the 10 accused for want of evidence.

Jayant Patel ‘Boskey’, president of the NCP’s Gujarat unit, said the party has taken a serious view of Jadeja cross-voting in Monday’s presidential polls. “Kandhal doesn’t seem to understand what is NDA and who is the joint Opposition candidate. He is going the Hardik Patel way for survival. There are some serious cases against him.”

In Jharkhand, too, the NCP was left red-faced after its Hussainabad MLA, Kamlesh Singh, cross-voted. Singh, 62, entered politics around 1984 with the Congress and was soon associated with its youth wing and Seva Dal. He was later made Bihar Congress Committee member and went on to become All India Congress Committee (AICC) member too.

In 1999, Singh unsuccessfully fought the Chatra Lok Sabha election on an NCP ticket – the year Pawar founded the party. Singh won his debut election in 2004 from Hussainabad constituency in Palamu district of Jharkhand.

Between 2006 and 2008, he served as minister for water resources, excise, food and civil supplies in the Madhu Koda-led UPA government in the state.

A source in his constituency said, “Singh’s politics revolved around bringing electricity and roads to his constituency. After he won, he became part of the Madhu Koda government and was instrumental in setting up power grids in the area. That made him popular.” He subsequently won the 2019 elections.

However, in 2009, the state’s Vigilance Bureau registered a case of disproportionate assets against him, following which the Enforcement Directorate too began its investigation.

According to his affidavit on the Election Commission website, Singh also has a case against him for alleged violation of the Representation of People’s Act.

NCP chief Pawar had earlier managed to get the Congress and Left parties on board for Mamata Banerjee’s proposal to “sit together” and pick a candidate for the post of President, eventually nominating former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha to contest against Murmu. On Sunday, the Opposition had met at Pawar’s residence to decide on Congress leader Alva as the Opposition’s candidate for Vice-President.