Oppositions mock voting drive flags risk of 'Invalid Votes'

New Delhi: A large number of parliamentarians belonging to the opposition INDIA bloc gathered at the Central Hall of the Samvidhan Sadan on Monday and participated in a mock voting demo for today's (Tuesday) vice-presidential election. They were given dummy ballot papers in which Opposition candidate B Sudarshan Reddy's name figured first and ruling NDA's CP Radhakrishna's second in alphabetic order. This was to practice the voting in the specified manner.

Senior leaders, including Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP-SP leader Sharad Pawar and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav were present at the meeting. Congress functionaries said Rahul Gandhi could not make it to the meeting as he was expected to return to Delhi late Monday night from abroad. Jairam Ramesh (Congress) and Ramgopal Yadav (SP) briefed the gathering about the voting procedures. Special care, some MPs said, was emphasised to avoid 'invalid votes', which were quite high during some previous presidential and vice-presidential elections.

However, an experienced MP said after the meeting that in past cases, if some 'invalid votes' were due to inadvertent mistakes, some others were 'deliberate invalid votes', as an indirect way of cross-voting -- unlike the category which made use of the absence of party whips in these elections to indulge in direct cross-voting. The INDIA bloc has around 320 votes, while the NDA holds more than 420 - a lead of over 100. The result of the election is expected by late Tuesday evening.


After the meeting, Anil Desai (SS-UBT) told the media, "All important issues were considered for Tuesday's vice-presidential election. A mock poll was conducted. The entire Opposition is united".