Cross-voting in favour of Pranab in Karnataka

Faction-ridden ruling BJP in Karnataka suffered a humiliation today when Pranab Mukherjee secured a backing of 117 MLAs as against P A Sangma's 103, with some BJP members cross-voting in favour of the UPA nominee.

Mukherjee had only a pledged support 98 MLAs -- 71 from Congress and 27 from JD(S) -- but he managed to secure the support of 19 more legislators.

Sangma could only garner 103 votes, even though BJP has 119 members in the Assembly.

Of the 224 members, an MLA did not vote in the July 19 poll.

The situation for BJP in the state has been volatile as it had to change the Chief Minister thrice in the past two years.

The value of votes polled by Mukherjee in Karnataka was 15,327 while it was 13,493 for Sangma.

In Gujarat also, a BJP MLA cross-voted in favour of Mukherjee.

Mukherjee had a pledged support of Congress (54), NCP (3) and JD-U (1). However, he got 59 while Sangma got 123.

Earlier, BJP MLA Kanubhai Kalsariya claimed that he had voted for Mukherjee.

In terms of vote value, Mukherjee got 8,673 while Sangma got 18,081 in Gujarat.

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