Legislators from Maharashtra, home state of Pratibha Patil, voted in large numbers in the presidential election, with BJP deserted by its ally Shiv Sena.
MUMBAI: Legislators from Maharashtra, the home state of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee Pratibha Patil, voted in large numbers in the presidential election on Thursday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deserted by its long-time ally Shiv Sena.
The Shiv Sena's stunning decision to vote for Patil over her Maharashtra origins, ignoring the claim of Vice President and BJP-backed Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, means that Patil can expect a thumping victory from the state.
While an undercurrent of joy pervaded the Congress camp, gloom was palpable in the BJP group as legislators gathered at the state legislature to exercise their franchise.
Almost all 75 Congress members were at the Vidhan Bhavan when polling began at 10.00 a.m. Patil has been a minister in the Maharahstra government for 22 years and also once headed the president of the state Congress unit.
Most of the 71 members of Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), independents and members of smaller groups like Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) who have pledged to back Patil also joined the queue to vote.
The 55 MLAs and 16 MPs of the Shiv Sena assembled at the residence of their house leader Ramdas Kadam and went to the Hutatma Square to pay obeisance to the martyrs before proceeding to the Vidhan Bhavan.
This left the 55-member BJP group in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly alone to vote for the Nationalist Democratic Alliance (NDA)-supported independent candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat though their spokesman Devendra Fadnavis told IANS that some independents were likely to vote for Shekhawat.
Congress legislator Nitin Raut said on the other hand that cross voting, if at all, was possible only in favour of Patil "though we neither need it nor have worked for it".
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