[1]The final result of the presidential election on Sunday revealed that it was a clean sweep for winner Pranab Mukherjee in Kerala, whereas in Karnataka P.A. Sangma failed to get all the votes of the faction-ridden BJP even though the saffron party had backed the tribal leader in the election.
Mukherjee won all the 124 votes polled in Kerala, while one was invalid, and Sangma drew a blank.
CPI and RSP members abstained from voting; they have a strength of 15 in an Assembly of 140 members in Kerala. The faction-ridden ruling BJP in Karnataka was embarrassed when Mukherjee secured the backing of 117 MLAs as against Sangma’s 103, with some BJP members cross-voting in favour of the winner.
Mukherjee had the pledged support of 98 MLAs — 71 of the Congress and 27 of the JD(S) — but he managed to secure the support of 19 more legislators in Karnataka.
Sangma could garner only 103 votes even though the BJP has 119 members in the Assembly.
Of the 224 members, one did not vote. The value of votes polled in favour of Mukherjee in Karnataka was 15,327 while it was 13,493 for Sangma. In Gujarat, too, a BJP MLA cross-voted in favour of Mr Mukherjee.
The UPA candidate had the pledged support of the Congress (54), NCP (three) and JD-U (one). However, he got 59 votes and Sangma 123.
BJP MLA Kanubhai Kalsariya had claimed earlier that he had voted in favour of Mukherjee. In terms of vote value in Gujarat, Mukherjee got 8,673 while Sangma got 18,081.
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