Cross-voting in Prez polls likely

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Jayanthi Natarajan and Manmohan Singh at the RIO+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, on Thursday-PTI

Talk of cross-voting in the forthcoming presidential election has begun in political circles following divisions in the Congress-led UPA, the BJP-led NDA and the Left.

While Congress strategists are keeping Trinamul Congress boss Mamata Banerjee in good humour, the BJP-led NDA is divided; and the division in the Left Front will not affect the prospects of UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee for the simple reason that it will not help the BJP-backed P.A. Sangma.
“The President is elected through a secret ballot. Moreover, presidential candidates do not fight elections on party symbols. Therefore, it has always been a conscience vote,” a section of MPs said, predicting that the votes of the BJP, BJD, SAD and other parties could split.
Drawing attention to how the votes of political parties had split in earlier presidential and vice-presidential elections, they said the late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat got more votes than the NDA had in the vice-presidential election. At that time, the Thakurs had voted for him across party lines. Mr Sangma is playing the tribal card with the calculation that tribals will vote for him no matter to which party they belong.