Taking a lesson or two from the Presidential election, where a few BJP-ruled states reported instances of cross-voting in favour of UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee, the BJP-led NDA met on Tuesday and deliberated on ways to ensure that there’s no cross-voting in the Vice-Presidential election.
The NDA leaders met at the residence of NDA working chairman L K Advani. “All the NDA votes in the Vice-Presidential election should go to the Opposition nominee, Jaswant Singh, and the meeting had been convened to discuss ways to ensure that,” said NDA convener and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav after the meeting. Apart from ensuring that Jaswant gets every single NDA vote, attempts would also be made to get the votes of the BJD and the AIADMK - the two parties that had initially propped up the name of P A Sangma for the position of President (who later secured the support of the BJP and the SAD). “It was, however, decided at the meeting that the effort (to reach out to non-NDA parties) would be coordinated, at an individual level, by Jaswant Singh,” said SAD leader Naresh Gujral, who was present at the meeting.
Leaders of Opposition in both the Houses of Parliament Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, senior BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, Gujral, besides Advani, Yadav and Jaswant were present at the meeting.