Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 10: The Vice Presidential election on Tuesday ended in a decisive win for the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate CP Radhakrishnan, but the outcome was overshadowed by allegations of cross-voting and invalid ballots and possible dent in the opposition INDIA bloc.
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 was a serious breach of trust and raises questions about internal unity.
“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.
The NDA has not only succeeded in keeping its flock together, but also managed to snatch some votes from the opposition bloc or was able to influence its MPs to deliberately cast invalid votes to increase the margin of victory for its candidate to 152 while it has less than 100 votes more than the combined opposition strength.
Earlier on Wednesday, the 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.
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. All 9 MPs of the Rashtriya Janata Dal voted for India Alliance.. Now whatever happened there or not, the leaders will see it in the Parliament,” RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said.
Mr 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?” “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.
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. Mr Radhakrishnan, secured 452 votes, while the INDIA bloc nominee polled only 300 winning by 152 votes. Of the 781 MPs eligible to vote, 767 cast their ballots, of which 752 were declared valid. This sparked the speculations that at least 15 members from the bloc either crossed party lines or intentionally invalidated their ballots.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the opposition’s 40 per cent vote share as a “moral victory,” noting it was nearly 14 per cent higher than in 2022, when NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar defeated Margaret Alva. The ruling BJP poked holes in Ramesh’s claim. IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya wrote on X, “All 315 voted but for whom is the real question! Despite all the noise, the INDIA candidate managed only 300 votes, 15 short of what they claimed.”
BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal claimed that 14 opposition MPs voted for the NDA candidate, while another 15 deliberately cast invalid votes. “Rahul Gandhi’s antar atma ki awaaz did not work. It worked in favour of the NDA, and his false narrative has fallen flat,” he said.
Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mahaske also claimed some opposition MPs from Maharashtra had switched sides. On the other hand, Congress MP Nasir Hussain pointed out that of the invalid votes, 12 came from the opposition camp and 3 from the NDA, raising the possibility that the INDIA bloc’s actual cross-vote count could be as high as 17.
Radhakrishnan’s victory consolidates the NDA’s hold over the second-highest constitutional office after the presidency.