'AAP MLAs' cross-voting forced Kejriwal to ask them to vote

The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, today claimed that AAP legislators had cross-voted in the presidential election, forcing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to ask his MLAs to vote as per their conscience.

Sixty-seven MLAs, including four of the opposition BJP, cast their votes in the presidential poll at the Delhi Assembly.

Gupta's party colleague and MLA OP Sharma also claimed that "about 10-12 AAP MLAs" who were "unhappy" with Kejriwal voted in favour of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

"We are supporting Meira Kumar (opposition's presidential candidate). All should vote following their conscience," Kejriwal, who cast his vote in the Delhi Assembly, said following Sharma's claim.

Gupta claimed that the move by Kejriwal was a "U-turn" as the ruling party MLAs were "angered" by the AAP leadership's decision to support Congress' Kumar.

"The AAP MLAs were deeply anguished with the stand taken by party's top leadership. A number of MLAs had already threatened to vote against Congress-led opposition's candidate Kumar," he said.

The AAP was not given any "importance" by the Congress during the campaign for polling and no polling agent was nominated for Kumar in the Delhi Assembly, he claimed.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)