The West Bengal unit of the BJP put up all its MLAs in a five-star hotel and arranged luxury buses to drive them to the State Assembly for voting in the Presidential elections on Monday.
About 70 MLAs were put up in a hotel in the New Town area of the city, where they spent Sunday night. On Monday morning, the MLAs arrived at the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in two luxury buses and queued up to cast their votes. The MLAs also wore yellow scarves with tribal motifs around their necks as they exercised their franchise for the election to the highest office in the country.
While the BJP legislators said that there was nothing wrong with all the MLAs going together to cast their vote, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership took a dig at the development and said that it was an attempt by the BJP to keep its flock together.
TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee posted on Twitter: “KARMA has no Menu. YOU GET SERVED WHAT YOU DESERVE. Folks @BJP4India will ALWAYS have to bow to the POWER OF PEOPLE. HILARIOUS to see instead of holding MLAs of other political parties captive, BJP’s ‘RESORT POLITICS’ have backfired on them !Truly, BENGAL SHOWS THE WAY.”
Of the 294 MLAs of the West Bengal Assembly, 291 cast their vote for the Presidential poll on Monday.
Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee, TMC general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee were among the ones who exercised their franchise. The TMC had asked its MPs to vote in the State Assembly. An exception was made for Shatrughan Sinha, who was administered the oath in Parliament today. TMC MP Sisir Adhikari and Dibyendu Adhikari, both relatives of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, cast their vote in Parliament
Even as the voting continued, there was a war of words between the TMC and the BJP. Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said that there will be cross-voting and all 221 TMC MLAs will not vote for the opposition candidate in the Presidential poll, Yashwant Sinha. The TMC leaders, however, exuded confidence that there will be no defections. After the defeat in the 2021 Assembly polls, there were several defections from the BJP camp, and half-a-dozen MLAs and two MPs of the BJP switched allegiance to TMC.
“There is no Eknath [Shinde] here,” TMC MLA Madan Mitra said, referring to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who recently lead a rebellion in that State. “In Bengal, we have only one loknath (people’s leader) and we are all with her [Ms. Banerjee],” Mr. Mitra.
There were also allegations of violations of the code of conduct by both the TMC and BJP. West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that BJP MLA from Purulia, Sudip Mukherjee, wore cloth with motifs of a particular community while voting.
Mr. Mukherjee in turn alleged that the TMC general secretary, Mr. Abhishek Banerjee, came to the House with a huge convoy of cars and supporters and violated the code of conduct.
