Presidential Election 2017: Opposition should explain losing 13 votes in state, says Maharashtra BJP

Mumbai: Jubilant over Ram Nath Kovind’s election as the next President, the BJP in Maharashtra on Thursday asked Congress-NCP to explain how at least 13 MLAs from the opposition camp in the state did not vote for Meira Kumar. “Going by the opposition’s strength in state Assembly, Meira Kumar should have got 90 votes from the MLAs, but got only 77,” Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told PTI. The opposition owes an explanation to the people for the loss of these 13 votes, he said. [caption id=“attachment_3838277” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “Going by the BJP-led alliance’s strength, Kovind should have got 185 votes - 122 of BJP and 63 of Shiv Sena, plus votes of other alliance partners, but he got 208 votes,” Bhandari said. On the other hand, Kumar should have got at least 90 votes, 83 of Congress-NCP, three of PWP, one of CPM, two of MIM and one of SP, Bhandari said. But she got only 77 votes of MLAs from Maharashtra, he pointed out. Of the 288 MLAs in the state, 287 voted in the presidential poll. Kovind, the NDA candidate, was on Friday elected as India’s 14th president. He defeated opposition’s Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, garnering more than 65 percent of the votes in the electoral college.