The Hindu : National : Margin exceeds expectations

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Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
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National

Margin exceeds expectations

Vidya Subrahmaniam and Anita Joshua

This in spite of AIADMK’s unexpected decision to go with Shekhawat

Cross-voting in Ms. Patil’s favour evident
She underperformed only in Himachal and Punjab

New Delhi: With the electoral college heavily tilted in her favour, it was a foregone conclusion that Pratibha Patil was headed for the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In an electoral college with votes valued at 10.98 lakh, Ms. Patil was projected to get 6,31,464 as against 3,14,411 for Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. The AIADMK’s unexpected decision to go with Mr. Shekhawat added another 19,280 to the Vice-President’s kitty. This ought to have reduced Ms. Patil’s margin of victory. It did not. She won by a margin of 3,06,810, bagging a vote share of 65.82 per cent. .

Ms. Patil secured votes valued at 6,38,116 compared to Mr. Shekhawat’s 3,31,306 — around 6,000 more than what the combined strength of the United Progressive Alliance-Left-Bahujan Samaj Party warranted. India’s first woman President-elect has done way better than expected.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign rested on a single hope: conscience vote.

At her daily briefings, Mr. Shekhawat’s poll manager Sushma Swaraj repeatedly called upon the electoral college to vote for the Vice-President cutting across party lines. Lal Krishna Advani made a personal appeal for a conscience vote in letters written individually to members of the college. Said the appeal dated July 4, 2007: “All members of the electoral college are expected to weigh the integrity and competence of the contesting candidates and decide as to who can serve the country best as the custodian of the Constitution. This is a personal appeal to you to cast a conscience vote to uphold the dignity of Rashtrapati Bhavan.”

As the results started coming in, it was apparent that sections of the electoral college had cross voted. Ironically, most of it went to Ms. Patil.

She got 442 votes from both Houses of Parliament — 16 more than the combined strength of the UPA, the Left parties and the BSP.

The UPA-Left-BSP’s nominee benefited from cross voting in the key BJP-ruled States of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. In Bihar and Orissa, where the BJP shares power with its allies, voters crossed party lines to support Ms. Patil.

In Madhya Pradesh, Ms. Patil polled 53 votes as against the Congress alliance’s strength of 38 in the Assembly. Eleven votes in the State were declared invalid because the voters wrote “Om,” “Jai Shri Ram,” etc, on the ballot paper.

In Gujarat, Ms. Patil secured 57 votes as against the Congress’ strength of 51. In Rajasthan, she secured 63 votes as against the expected 61. In Bihar, where the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) together run a Government, 91 votes (including two invalid votes) were cast in Ms. Patil’s favour, exceeding her campaign team’s calculation of 72.

In Orissa, where the BJP is in Government with the Biju Janata Dal, she got 46 votes, three more than the projected figure. In Jharkhand, Ms. Patil got 49 instead of the expected 43. In Karnataka, she got 83 votes where only 65 were expected.

In Tamil Nadu, Ms. Patil got an additional four votes in a House of 234. She got 171 votes as against the UPA-Left’s strength of 167.

In the northeastern States of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh too, Ms. Patil did better than expected. Himachal Pradesh and Punjab were the only States where she under-performed, securing one vote less in the former and three less in the latter.

Mr. Shekhawat secured the bulk of his votes from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa. However, he drew a blank in four States — Kerala, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal.

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