Cross-voting exposes cracks in Opposition camp

^{By Swagatika Bhutia}

Bhubaneswar,July 22: The victory of NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in presidential election was a foregone conclusion because the number was on her side. But nobody knew she will get 6,76,803votes. This happened because of large-scale cross voting by members of oppositions parties.

As many as 110 MLAs and 17MPs cross-voted in favour of Droupadi Murmu.

Not only the Congress lawmakers, but also legislators of other parties like TMC, NCP and SP also cross-voted.

Assam reported the highest number of 22 cross-voting followed by Madhya Pradesh  (19), Maharastra (16),  Uttar Pradesh (12),Gujurat(10), Jharkhand(10), Bihar(6), Chhatisgarh(6), Rajastan(5), Goa(4) and Odisha(1).

As 17 MPs cross-voted in favour of Ms Murmu, 12,000 more votes were added to her kitty.  

What is quite surprising is that the Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha did not get the number of votes he expected from his home state Jharkhand .

Mr Sinha got 3,80,177votes .

The cross-voting has exposed the divides and cracks in the Opposition camp.