Row Over Cross-Voting Snowballs, Congress's Manish Tewari Calls For Probe

The allegations of cross voting at the Vice Presidential elections by Opposition MPs has now blown up into a full-fledged political row. As the BJP sharpened its digs at  the Opposition, suggesting an internal rift ahead of a string of state elections, Congress's Manish Tewari demanded an investigation into the matter. Mr Tewari said such cross-voting is a serious breach of trust and raises questions about internal unity. 

Read: Cross-Voting Clouds Rain On INDIA Bloc After CP Radhakrishnan Elected Veep

"If there was cross-voting, then it should be seriously investigated by each of the constituents of the INDIA Alliance. Cross-voting is an extremely serious matter," Mr Tewari said.

"If at all what is being said or speculated has an iota of truth in it, it deserves a systematic and clinical investigation," he added. 

Earlier today, parliamentary affairs minister and senior BJP leader Kiren Rijiju rubbed it in by saying "thanks" to the Opposition. 

"Special thanks to some MPs of INDI Alliance who voted with 'Conscience' for NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan in the VP election. NDA and All our friendly MPs remain united. Congratulations to everyone on electing a humble & efficient man and a true patriot as India's new Vice President," Mr Rijiju posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Read: "Special Thanks To..": Kiren Rijiju On Possible Cross-Voting In Veep Poll

Party whips are not applicable to Vice Presidential elections -- which has a secret ballot -- and MPs are expected to vote according to their conscience. But in practice, most MPs follow the party line -- which is why the prospect of cross-voting ahead of elections in Bihar and Tamil Nadu is a matter of deep concern for the INDIA bloc. 

So far, most Opposition leaders have denied any cross voting by MPs from their parties. 

Nationalist Congress Party's Supriya Sule said, "If the voting was secret, how did you know? I don't know whose votes were divided? If 14 were divided, what did Maharashtra do? The state is being defamed."

"There was no cross voting from our side... 9 MPs of RJD voted for India Alliance.. Now whatever happened there or not, the leaders will see it in the Parliament," said Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav. 

But the frustration is obvious. Earlier today, Arvind Sawant, MP from Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, said, "Are those MPs who made the votes invalid -- are they educated and fools? Did they vote after asking their conscience or their votes were bought?"  

Read: NDA-Backed CP Radhakrishnan Elected India's Next Vice President

"They must have voted wrongly, that is why it became invalid. BJP has sown the seeds of betrayal. All the agencies are also slaves of BJP. They must have blackmailed on the strength of these agencies," he added.

"Since this was a secret ballot vote, it is difficult to say whether there was cross-voting or whether Opposition members' votes were discarded... Yesterday, I spoke to a few people and learnt that they spent Rs 15-20 crore on each person to buy votes," said Trinamool Congress's Abhishek Banerjee, insisting that his party's 41 MPs had voted for the Opposition candidate.

"The BJP has tried this again, but since this was a secret ballot, 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. 

Though the Congress has claimed that the 315 Opposition MPs had held together, the Opposition candidate, retired Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy got only 300 votes. 

The NDA had 427 votes, and YSR Congress, which was supporting it, had 11 MPs. So the NDA votes should have been capped at 438 but Mr Radhakrishnan got 452 votes -- 14 more.   

The cancellation of 15 votes also raised questions.

Sources said in seven of the invalid votes the pattern was the same -- voted for NDA candidate but wrong box marked. Two votes had tick marks and a figure was written on a third.