Pranab Mukherjee, the Presidential nominee of the UPA, secured 124 out of the 139 votes polled in the Assembly on Thursday. CPM legislator and former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac cast his vote in Parliament, as he took permission for it citing that he was on a trip to China.
A Kerala legislator’s vote is valued at 152 and that of an MP is 708. The votes of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs’ were polled in Parliament.
Thirteen MLAs, belonging to the CPI and two from the RSP abstained from voting, going by a decision of the two parties at the national-level not to toe the CPM line. All others in the Opposition and treasury benches voted in favour of Pranab Mukherjee.
CPM Politburo member and Former Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was the first to cast his franchise. He came along with CPM MLAs M A Baby, A K Balan and V Sivan Kutty.
Ludi Luis, Anglo Indian nominee in the Assembly, has no voting rights.
P Ubaidulla (IUML) was the first from the ruling front who exercised his franchise. Among Ministers, K Babu came first to cast his vote, followed by Anoop Jacob.
Chief Whip P C George, who acted as the Chief Election Agent of Mukherjee, was the last to cast his vote. By 2.30 p.m., the voting was over.
BJP state president V Muraleedharan was the polling agent for P A Sangma, the NDA candidate for the Presidential polls, who is believed to have drawn a blank in the state in terms of support.
The voting was held in specially-arranged Room No.604 of the Assembly complex.
Former Karnataka Minister Krishna Pai had arrived as AICC observer for the the UPA candidate in the polls.
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members from the state, barring CPI’s M P Achuthan, polled their votes in Parliament.
The total value of votes polled by 125 MLAs’ of Kerala Assembly is 19,000. The total value of votes of 20 Lok Sabha MPs and eight Rajya Sabha MPs from the state is 19,824.