DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Congress on Saturday announced to conduct an inquiry to ascertain the identity of one of its MLAs who voted for NDA’s Druapdi Murmu in the July 18 presidential election.
Speaking to The New Indian, state Congress chief Karan Mehta said, “Whoever this person is should come forward and work against the party openly. If he has decided to betray the party, he does not have any right to stay in the party.”
“We will investigate the matter and take action against this MLA,” he said.
The party has decided to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of leader of opposition Yashpal Arya.
“A thorough investigation will be done in the matter and action will be taken against the MLA accordingly. If one does not want to adhere to the ideology of the party, then why did he/she contest on the party ticket to become an MLA,” Arya questioned.
Uttarakhand is among the states that witnessed cross-voting in favour of Murmu who has become the first tribal and the second woman President of India.
Out of total 70 members, 67 cast their votes in the 15th presidential elections on July 18. Of those, 51 votes went to Murmu and 15 to opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Interestingly, the BJP has 48 MLAs in the 70-member state assembly followed by Indian National Congress (19), Bahujan Samaj Party (2) and independent (1).
The tally clearly pointed out cross voting by the Congress MLA.
Three MLAs who did not vote include state cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das who had to be admitted in a hospital due to illness, Congress MLA from Kiccha, Tilakraj Behar and Congress MLA from Badrinath, Rajendra Singh Bhandari.
The total value of state’s legislators is 4480 in the presidential polls while votes of eight MPs (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) hold the value of 5600 votes.