CHENNAI: During the polling for presidential elections, one MLA from the DMK or its alliance parties in Tamil Nadu cast an invalid vote on July 18. This came to the light from the polling percentage details provided by the Election Commission.
In Tamil Nadu, there are 234 MLAs. Droupadi Murmu, NDA’s presidential candidate polled 75 votes while Yashwant Sinha, the candidate put forth by the opposition parties polled 158 votes. So, it is obvious that 75 MLAs belonging to the NDA - (AIADMK-66, PMK-5 and BJP-4) have solidly voted for Murmu while 158 MLAs belonging to the DMK and its allies - Congress, CPM, CPI and VCK have voted for Sinha. Actually, Sinha should have polled 159 votes in Tamil Nadu given the strength of the DMK and its allies in the State.
Of the 53 invalid votes, 15 came from Parliament followed by five each from Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, and four each in Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Three invalid votes came from Uttar Pradesh, two from Assam, and one each from Uttarakhand, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and the union territory of Puducherry.
A day ahead of the presidential elections, the NDA, as well as the DMK and its allies, have organised a meeting of their respective MLAs. During the meeting, the voting process and how to cast the vote etc were explained in detail. Despite that, one MLA in the State cast an invalid vote.