In a rarity, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) kept its 69 MLAs from Kolkata in a five-star hotel, to avoid cross-voting in the Presidential election on Monday.
Party insiders say the plan was all BJP MLAs will go together to vote.
On Monday morning, two buses carrying the MLAs reached the Bengal Assembly and all were seen entering together.
The NDA has fielded Droupadi Murmu, while the opposition has picked Yashwant Sinha.
The Bengal unit of the BJP has been claiming there will be cross-voting as tribal MLAs of the TMC will vote for Murmu, while the TMC has been saying the BJP MLAs are not happy and hence they would cross-vote.
TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee tweeted: ““KARMA has no Menu. YOU GET SERVED WHAT YOU DESERVE. Folks @BJP4India will ALWAYS have to bow to the POWER OF PEOPLE. HILARIOUS to see instead of holding MLAs of other political parties captive, BJP’s ‘RESORT POLITICS’ have backfired on them! Truly, BENGAL SHOWS THE WAY.”
KARMA has no Menu. YOU GET SERVED WHAT YOU DESERVE. Folks @BJP4India will ALWAYS have to bow to the POWER OF PEOPLE.
HILARIOUS to see instead of holding MLAs of other political parties captive, BJP’s ‘RESORT POLITICS’ have backfired on them!
Truly, BENGAL SHOWS THE WAY.. https://t.co/VAfXd9LAZe
— Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) July 18, 2022
On the other hand, the BJP feels this vote will be a festival for them. Agnimitra Paul, BJP MLA, said, “It’s a celebration of the fact that a tribal woman will be made the President. It is a big day and we have come together to cast our votes. Their [TMC] people will also vote for us.”
Suvendu Adhikari, BJP leader, said, “People had to come from North Bengal. They don’t have a space to stay here, so we all stayed together. We don’t have money like the TMC. So we came together.”
Amid claims and counter-claims, all eyes are now on the July 21 results.
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