Congress-led UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee is expected to win the “highest support” from Andhra Pradesh against his rival BJP-led NDA nominee P.A. Sangma in the Presidential election held on Thursday. Out of the 190 MLAs and 3 MPs who cast their votes, 185 MLAs and 3 MPs are believed to have supported Mukherjee while five MLAs backed Sangma.
Altogether 104 of the 294 members of the assembly did not cast their votes. They included 81 of the Telugu Desam, 17 of the TRS, four of the CPI which boycotted the poll, the Mahbubnagar BJP MLA Srinivas Reddy who is away in the US, and Telugu Desam MLA Suman Rathod who is ineligible to vote due to a court case. Apart from the two TD MLAs who are said to have backed Sangma, BJP president G. Kishan Reddy and Nizamabad MLA E. Laxminarayana also backed him.
In all, 190 MLAs and 3 MPs cast their votes here. The ballot box will be sent to Delhi by the 6.40am flight tomorrow, said Dr S. Raja Sadaram, legislature secretary and assistant returning officer for the Presidential poll. The polling was held from 10 am to 5 pm in the Assembly premises. Two extra ballot papers were used in the process. While Dr Rajasadaram said two damaged ballot papers were replaced for “administrative” reasons, rumours spread that Nellimarla Congress MLA B. Appala Naidu and Nalgonda Congress MLA Komatireddy Venkatreddy did wrong markings, realised the folly quickly enough, and took extra ballot papers.
Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar was the first to cast vote followed by Lok Satta MLA Jayaprakash Narayan and CPM MLA Julakanti Ranga Reddy while Gudivada Telugu Desam MLA Kodali Sri Venkateshwara Rao was the last. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti president, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said his party had boycotted the Presidential elections because the Congress, and Pranab Mukherjee had opposed the demand for Telangana.