New Delhi: Two days after the National Democratic Alliance’s C.P. Radhakrishnan won the vice president elections by defeating the opposition INDIA bloc’s B. Sudershan Reddy, speculation has remained rife about cross voting in the contest. While the BJP-led ruling government’s ministers and members thanked members of the opposition for voting according to their conscience, opposition members raised questions about vote theft inside parliament.

In the elections on Tuesday (September 10), Radhakrishnan won 452 votes and Reddy got 300 votes, while 15 votes were declared invalid. Following the polling, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh had announced that 315 MPs from the opposition bloc had cast their votes. While it is not clear who the 15 MPs were whose votes were declared invalid, just hours after the election results were declared Union minister Piyush Goyal alleged that 25 members of the opposition had cross voted.

“The NDA strength in both houses was 427. We have received 452 votes, which is 25 votes more than the NDA strength,” he said to NDTV.

“This clearly demonstrates Prime Minister Modi's policies, leadership resonates even with the members against the BJP and NDA so much so that 25 members have voted for the NDA candidate Radhakrishnan.”

The next morning, Union minister Kiren Rijiju added to the churn in a statement by thanking “some MPs of- INDI Alliance who voted with conscience” for the NDA candidate.

“NDA and All our friendly MPs remain united. Congratulations to everyone on electing a humble & efficient man and a true patriot as India's new Vice President,” he said.

Soon after, Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP Shrikant Shinde also issued “special word of thanks” to members in the INDIA bloc and Maha Vikas Aghadi, the opposition Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-NCP(SP) alliance in Maharashtra.

“A special word of thanks to our friends in the Indi-Alliance & MVA who listened to their conscience and in doing so, supported the NDA. Sometimes conscience speaks louder than party whips,” he said.

While Goyal had said that there was no strategy to garner votes and MPs had the “courage” to vote for the NDA candidate, Congress’ Lok Sabha chief whip Manickam Tagore accused the government of “vote theft” inside parliament.

“We have not managed it. It was a secret ballot. Therefore, they had the courage to vote for the NDA candidate,” Goyal had said to NDTV.

Speaking to The Wire, Tagore said that questions of vote theft arise because the government itself is celebrating.

“They are celebrating that opposition MPs have voted for them. Because they are celebrating this question arises,” he said to The Wire.

While Shinde in his statement had accused members of the MVA of voting according to their conscience, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant denied the allegations and accused the BJP-Shiv Sena of being frustrated that the Shiv Sena (UBT) faction is not joining their alliance.

“Traitors are always there because the BJP’s corrupt culture is to buy people. As far as Shiv Sena is concerned I am 100% sure everyone voted in line,” said Sawant to The Wire.

“The only reason BJP is harping on this is because we don’t succumb to their pressure. Why are they talking about this? Because they are frustrated that Shiv Sena UBT is not joining them,” said Sawant.

Earlier on Wednesday TMC MP and general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that he had learnt that Rs 15-20 crores was being spent by the government to influence votes in the Vice President elections and alluded to members from AAP like Swati Maliwal who may have cross voted.

“As this was a secret ballot, it is difficult to confirm whether there was any cross-voting or if opposition members’ votes were discarded. This is all speculation but even if there was cross voting, there are some MPs for instance from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), there is a woman MP (referring to Maliwal) who is from the AAP by name but criticises Arvind Kejriwal. There are a few others like this,” he said.

“Yesterday, I spoke to a few sources and learned that Rs 15-20 crore was reportedly spent on each person to influence votes. Elected representatives may be bought, but the people cannot.”

Meanwhile Congress MP Manish Tewari said that if at all there has been cross voting it needs to be investigated and leadership of all parties need to introspect.

“Cross-voting has three dimensions. First, there is greed, second is a breach of trust, and third is the failure of leadership. If at all there has been cross voting then it is a serious matter and the leadership of every party needs to investigate and introspect,” he said to PTI.

Members of the opposition also said that while cross voting is being discussed, the fact remains that Radhakrishnan’s final tally was lower than his predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar whose abrupt resignation on ‘health grounds’ necessitated the elections.

“Dhankhar won 528 votes (in 2022) but this time Radhakrishnan has got only 452. This shows we have increased our votes by almost 40% and we are united,” said Sawant.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien, on the other hand, said that there are more important numbers than 15 votes here or there.

“It has been 15 days since the US imposed a 50% tariff on India, 862 days since violence started in Manipur, 967 days of JP Nadda overstaying as BJP president, 1282 days of MGNREGA funds being stopped for West Bengal, 2278 days of not having a Deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha, and 4117 since Prime Minister Modi answered a question in Lok Sabha,” said O’Brien.

“These are the important numbers for which the Modi government needs to be held accountable. 15 votes here or there is not a figure which needs to be top of mind.”

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