BHUBANESWAR: The strategy drawn by the ruling BJD and BJP to get maximum votes from Odisha in favour of NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu seems to have succeeded.
The proactive campaign of the BJD in favour of Murmu has also exposed the fissures in the Opposition Congress camp with one of its MLA's voting for the NDA nominee defying the party guidelines. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that attempts will be made to ensure all votes from Odisha are in favour of Murmu.
The BJD had left nothing to chance to ensure that not a single vote was rejected for which it had held training sessions for party MPs and MLAs. The Chief Minister was the first to vote followed by ministers and party MLAs.
Similarly, all BJD MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha assembled at the party office in Parliament and proceeded together to cast their votes. BJD has 12 Lok Sabha and 10 Rajya Sabha MPs. The BJP also ensured that not a single vote of the party was rejected and nobody abstained from voting.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Pradipta Kumar Naik arrived in a wheelchair to cast his vote in the Parliament house. He was accompanied by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Naik has been admitted to a private hospital at New Delhi for post-COVID complications.
Besides, out of the two expelled BJD MLAs, former minister Pradip Panigrahy voted in favour of Murmu. However, Prashant Jagdev did not vote.Meanwhile, the total value of votes in the Presidential election in Odisha including 31 MPs, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and 147 MLAs is 43,454.
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The total value of BJD MPs and MLAs from the State is 31,388 for 112 MLAs, 12 Lok Sabha MPs and nine Rajya Sabha MPs. Besides, one of the expelled BJD MLA has also voted for Murmu. That comes to 149 vote value. Similarly, the total vote value of BJP Odisha is 9,578 including 3,278 of 22 MLAs and 6,300 of nine MPs.
The total vote value of Congress from the State will be 1,892, 8 MLAs and one MP. The value of votes received by Murmu from the State is 41,413 including that of Moquim and independent MLA Makaranda Muduli. Value of votes obtained by united Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha will be 2,041 including eight Congress MLA, one Congress MP and one CPM MLA.