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The infighting in the Karnataka BJP has reflected in the July 19 Presidential elections too.Cross-voting by at least 14 party MLAs made UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee the winner in the state.
Mukherjee polled 117 votes as against the pledged support of 97 MLAs — 71 from the Congress and 26 from the JD(S).
The NDA-backed P A Sangma got only 103 votes, 17 short of the BJP’s Assembly strength. The state earned the dubious distinction of recording the maximum cross-voting.
Of the 224 MLAs, Haladi Srinivas Shetty did not vote as he had resigned a day earlier protesting his non-inclusion in the Jagadish Shettar Cabinet, and three votes were found invalid.
Even if all the invalid votes were from the BJP and three MLAs aligned with BSR Congress founder Sriramulu — Somashekhar Reddy, Sureshbabu and R Nagendra — voted for Mukherjee, Sangma should have got 114 votes.
The tally raises the question: Does the government enjoy the confidence of a majority of the MLAs? The halfway mark is 112 in a House of 223.
State BJP president and Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa said that a committee would be formed to find out which BJP MLAs cross-voted, and stern action would be taken against them.
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