Cross voting in Prez polls signals resentment against Tejashwi : BJP

Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal Friday claimed that resentment against the Leader of Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav got reflected in the presidential poll in which Draupadi Murmu got more votes than the number NDA had in its kitty.Jaiswal, who did not mention Yadav by name, accused the RJD leader of treating his supporters, especially those from his own caste, as vassals.Our NDAs effective strength in the assembly was 125, as one of our MLAs could not vote.

Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal Friday claimed that ''resentment'' against the Leader of Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav got reflected in the presidential poll in which Draupadi Murmu got more votes than the number NDA had in its kitty.

Jaiswal, who did not mention Yadav by name, accused the RJD leader of treating his supporters, especially those from his own caste, as ''vassals''.

''Our (NDA's) effective strength in the assembly was 125, as one of our MLAs could not vote. Murmu was supported by 133 members. This is evidence of cross voting on a substantial scale,'' he said.

The BJP leader said this had happened because of the resentment in the opposition camp against its leader who considered all his supporters as his ''halwaha, charwaha'' (vassals).

In an apparent reference to Yadav's recent claim that Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had once expressed the desire to join RJD, Jaiswal said ''He cannot brook any member of the Yadav community making it on his own. Such Yadavs become target of his smear campaign''.

Jaiswal, who is a Lok Sabha MP, also mocked Yadav for flaunting RJD's strength in the 243-strong assembly.

''We have many leaders who are more experienced and competent than he is. But he has the temerity to look down upon us just because he won 75 seats, out of more than 150 he fought. We (BJP) had contested only 110 seats and we won 74'', said Jaiswal.

The saffron party's strength has now risen to 77 with three members of the expelled state minister Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaaan Party (VIP) having jumped ship.

The RJD remains the single largest party with 80 MLAs, having wrested one assembly seat from VIP in a by-poll and weaned away all but one of the five members of Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM.