Murmu receives unexpected vote from Kerala; BJP terms it 'positive vote'

During the counting of votes for the presidential elections, Droupadi Murmu was found to have received one vote from Kerala, a state with no BJP legislator in the 140-member Assembly

The recently held presidential election and the historic victory of Droupadi Murmu are likely to create political ripples in Kerala as the NDA candidate received an unexpected vote from the southern state.

When results of the much-awaited poll was announced in New Delhi on Thursday, Murmu was found to have received one vote from Kerala. As there is no BJP legislator in the 140-member state Assembly, it was generally expected that the entire votes would be polled to opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha. The CPI (M)-led ruling LDF and the Congress-headed UDF opposition front had announced their support to Sinha.

The question being raised by political observers now is whether the vote polled to the NDA candidate was by a mistake or a deliberate one. The BJP state unit already came out expressing happiness over the unexpected single vote to the NDA candidate. "The single vote which Droupadi Murmu got from Kerala has more value than the rest of 139 votes polled," BJP state president K Surendran said. He also termed the vote received by Murmu as a "positive vote" against the negative stand being taken up by the Left and right fronts in the state. Murmu scripted history on Thursday by becoming the country's first tribal President, defeating Opposition candidate Sinha in a one-sided contest.