10 Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs miss meet on Presidential election | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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10 Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs miss meet on Presidential election

By, Bhopal
Jul 16, 2022 12:27 AM IST

Former state ministers and senior leaders such as Jitu Patwari, Tarun Bhanot, Arif Aqueel and Sanjay Yadav were among the absentees, party leaders said.

The absence of 10 Congress legislators in Madhya Pradesh from a meeting called in support of opposition presidential candidate, Yashwant Sinha, on Thursday, has created a buzz with some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders suggesting that indicates the possibility of cross-voting in Monday’s presidential election.

Opposition's presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. (HT file)
Opposition's presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. (HT file)

According to Congress leaders, former state ministers and senior leaders Jitu Patwari, Tarun Bhanot, Arif Aqueel, Sanjay Yadav, and six others, didn’t attend the meeting. In the meeting, two Congress MLAs, Panchilal Meda and Umang Singhar, accused the BJP of offering money for cross-voting.

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MP Congress president Kamal Nath on Thursday said the BJP leaders were eying 28 tribal Congress MLAs and offering them money to vote for the NDA’s presidential candidate, Droupadi Murmu. “They are doing dirty politics to win the election. However, Congress MLAs will not accept the offer but will expose the real face of BJP,” he said.

To be sure, Murmu, the first tribal woman to contest the Presidential elections, is expected to win comfortably with support that has already been pledged to her by constituents of the BJP-led NDA, and other parties including the Biju Janata Dal, both the Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions of the Shiv Sena, and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

In presidential elections, the party whip is not applicable and lawmakers are allowed to vote as per their “conscience”.

Congress leaders claimed the missing MLAs informed Nath about their inability to attend. “Jitu Patwari was in Delhi, Tarun Bhanot and Sanjay Yadav were busy district panchayat polls, and Arif Aqueel was unwell. All Congress MLAs will come for the vote to foil the BJP plan of cross-voting,” said Narendra Saluja, the Congress spokesperson.

Patwari, Bhanot, Yadav and Aqueel could not be reached over the phone.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has 96 MLAs, the BJP 127, the BSP has two MLAs, the SP one, and there are four independent MLAs.

The BJP, however, claimed that the MLAs who did not attend were not happy with the Opposition candidate.

“Congress didn’t find an appropriate candidate for the Presidential election. Many MLAs are upset with the choice. They want to support NDA’s candidate because she is the first tribal (woman) who is contesting the presidential election. Even Congress senior leaders realize that their MLAs can cross-vote to support a tribal woman candidate so they are making up false stories. Everything will become clear on July 18,” said VD Sharma, the BJP state unit’s president.

State home minister Narottam Mishra said, “Congress MLAs are losing trust in the party and that’s why they are not even taking interest in attending meetings. If Congress wants to file a FIR about us luring MLAs, I will go with them to the police station. But I know they will not file an FIR because it was a scripted thing.”

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries.

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