BHUBANESWAR: With senior MPs from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) questioning party supremo Naveen Patnaik's support for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, the Congress in Odisha is salivating at the prospect of BJD MLAs voting in favour of the opposition candidate Meira Kumar.
Two senior BJD MPs, Bhartruhari Mahtab and Tathagata Satpathy have questioned chief minister Naveen Patnaik's support for Kovind. This has set the Congress camp in Odisha agog with speculation that many more MPs and MLAs from the ruling party might vote for Meira Kumar.
The Congress chief whip in the Odisha Assembly Tara Prasad Bahinipati maintained that many MPs from BJD, Shiv Sena and even from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would vote for Meira Kumar. He added there is large-scale resentment among BJD MLAs on support to the NDA candidate.
However, BJP spokesperson Prashant Nanda ruled out any possibility of cross-voting by the BJD in favour of Meira Kumar. "No chance of cross-voting from BJD, Bahinipati's hopes will not materialise," said Nanda.
Meanwhile, seven Congress MLAs have left for New Delhi in connection with the presidential election. Bahinipati said the MLAs will be among the proposers for Meira Kumar's candidature. Besides Bahinipati, party MLAs Krushna Chandra Sagaria, Anshuman Mohanty, Jogesh Singh, Jacob Pradhan, Bhujabal Majhi and Chandrasekhar Majhi are in New Delhi.