The Opposition’s presidential candidate, Meira Kumar, secured the highest ever number of votes any losing candidate has secured in the election for the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Congress emphasised, as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) nominee, Ram Nath Kovind coasted to an easy victory.
This was the silver lining for the Opposition with news coming in of cross-voting from six States, where some of its MLAs voted for Mr. Kovind.
But despite these losses, Ms. Kumar managed 1,844 votes with a value of 3,67,314 when compared with Mr. Kovind’s 2,930 votes with a value of 7,02,044.
In the past, Presidential contest losers who have come closest to Ms. Kumar were G.G. Swell (3,46,485), who lost to Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1992; Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (3,31,306), who lost to Pratibha Patil in 2007; and Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (3,13,548), who lost to V.V. Giri in 1969.
However, there was some good news for the Congress from Rajasthan, where there was cross-voting in favour of Ms. Kumar.
Answering a question on cross-voting, the Congress’s communication chief Randeep Surjewala said, “...Opposition unity has stayed intact ... the winning candidate has got about 65.66% votes. There has been cross-voting also in favour of Ms. Meira Kumar.”