Opposition cross-voting suspected in VP polls after NDA candidate’s win, Congress MP seeks probe

The recent Vice-President election in India has sparked a debate about possible cross-voting and wasted votes within the Opposition. CP Radhakrishnan, the NDA’s candidate, was elected with 452 votes, even though the NDA’s total strength in Parliament is 427. This has raised questions about where the extra votes came from and whether Opposition MPs voted in his favour.

Radhakrishnan is set to take oath as the Vice-President on Friday. His victory, however, is now being closely examined by several Opposition leaders who suspect that some of their MPs may have cross-voted or cast invalid votes. The Congress and other parties in the INDIA bloc are trying to assess how many votes were lost, and Congress MP Manish Tewari has formally called for an investigation.

Numbers don’t match NDA’s strength

The vote count on September 9 showed that Radhakrishnan secured 452 votes. But according to Parliament numbers, the NDA together has only 427 MPs. Even with the support of the YSR Congress Party, which has 11 MPs, the NDA’s tally should have been 438. This still leaves a gap of at least 14 extra votes, which suggests that MPs from Opposition parties might have voted for the NDA candidate.

Opposition leaders have been informally discussing the issue. A senior non-Congress leader claimed that around 10 votes were lost to cross-voting. According to him, one Congress vote was doubtful, three votes each from the Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena were wasted, and four MPs of the AAP either cross-voted or submitted invalid ballots. In addition, there are suspicions that two votes each from the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) did not go to the INDIA bloc’s candidate, B Sudershan Reddy.

These observations are based on guesswork and discussions, as the Vice-President election is conducted through a secret ballot. This makes it impossible to verify how individual MPs voted.

On the NDA side, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that Radhakrishnan got 25 more votes than expected. He explained this by counting the 11 YSR Congress votes along with 14 additional votes from other MPs. The NDA also suspects that cross-voting came in their favour from MPs in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, two states where Radhakrishnan earlier served as governor.

Opposition calls for investigation

Congress MP Manish Tewari has spoken openly about the issue, saying that cross-voting is a very serious matter. “If what is being said is true, it deserves a systematic and clinical investigation by all Opposition constituents,” Tewari told news agency ANI. He insisted that the matter should not be ignored and that the Opposition needs to understand how such voting patterns emerged.

Tewari’s remarks came after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju posted a congratulatory message for Radhakrishnan on social media. Rijiju thanked “some INDIA bloc MPs” for voting in favour of the NDA candidate, though he did not name them. This comment has only strengthened the suspicion that several Opposition MPs voted against their party line.

This is not the first time doubts have been raised about Vice-President elections. In 2022, when Jagdeep Dhankhar won as Vice-President, 15 votes were declared invalid. The highest number of invalid votes in such an election was recorded in 1997, when 46 ballots were rejected.

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A test for Opposition unity

The controversy has come at a time when the INDIA bloc, a coalition of Opposition parties, is trying to project unity against the NDA. Allegations of cross-voting or wasted votes could weaken their position and raise questions about their internal discipline. Parties like the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena, and AAP may now face tough questions from their own supporters.

Political experts say that cross-voting during secret ballots often exposes cracks in party discipline and internal disagreements. If confirmed, this could also hurt the credibility of the Opposition ahead of future elections.

For the NDA, however, the result is a morale boost. The extra votes received by Radhakrishnan suggest that some Opposition MPs are either dissatisfied with their leadership or willing to support the government’s nominee. This gives the ruling alliance a stronger political narrative, showing that its influence extends beyond its formal numbers.

As CP Radhakrishnan prepares to take charge as the new Vice-President of India, the debate around cross-voting is unlikely to fade away soon. The Opposition will continue pressing for answers, while the NDA will celebrate a comfortable victory. The coming weeks may see further discussions inside Parliament as well as within the Opposition bloc about how such a result came about.