Krishan Kant pips Barnala to Vice-President’s post

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Freedom fighter and Gandhian Krishan Kant was elected the tenth Vice-President of India today, winning 441 votes out of ...

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Freedom fighter and Gandhian Krishan Kant was elected the tenth Vice-President of India today, winning 441 votes out of 779. Kant was the joint candidate of the ruling United Front (UF) as well as the Congress. He will be sworn in on August 21.

Kant defeated the only other candidate, Akali Dal leader SS Barnala, who had the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies. Barnala polled 273 votes.

As many as 97 per cent votes (760) were cast in the

election. According to the arithmetic, Kant was expected to get 515 votes, but he secured only 441, revealing the cracks in the UF and the Congress.

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Observers said at least 45 members of both parties had voted in favour of Barnala (who stood outside the polling station the whole day, requesting MPs to support him). Several MPs did not vote at all. No party had issued whips to MPs.

Tellingly, 46 votes were found to be invalid, as MPs had written their names on the ballot papers. The office of Vice-President fell vacant after the election of KR Narayanan as the President last month.

Seventy-year-old Kant is a close friend of Prime Minister IK Gujral. Both took part in the freedom struggle and were in jail together. In a political career spanning five decades, Kant relentlessly fought corruption.

Originally a Congressman, Kant was expelled from the party for opposing the Emergency declared by the late Indira Gandhi in 1975.

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He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1966 to 1977 and then a member of the Lok Sabha until 1990. At present, he is the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.Although Kant’s victory was considered a foregone conclusion, Gujral and UF Convenor and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu took no chance and organised a breakfast meeting for State MPs at Andhra Bhavan this morning. About 225 MPs attended the meeting.

The Prime Minister impressed upon the MPs the need to maintain unity and asked them to vote for Kant. Naidu is said to have cautioned MPs to vote carefully so that there were no invalid votes.

During the recent Presidential election, 35 votes were found to be invalid, he pointed out.

If the elected representatives of the people did not vote properly it would send a bad message, he is believed to have told them.

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Sources said Naidu arrived in the Capital yesterday to ensure that Kant won with a big margin. He is learnt to have asked party leaders to mobilise their MPs as well as summon those who were not in Delhi.

MPs belonging to the Muslim League, the Kerala Congress, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), apart from a few Independents, were also present at the meeting.