By IANS
New Delhi : Sultan Asaduddin Owaisi, the sole MP of the Majlise Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) that is part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) did not cast his vote for the presidential election Thursday, while some Samajwadi Party members defied party orders and cast their votes.
The MIM had recently objected to certain remarks attributed to UPA candidate Pratibha Patil.
The newly-launched United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) had earlier announced that its MPs and MLAs will not vote. Similarly, the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), the Trinamool Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) too had announced their intent to abstain from voting, keeping an equal distance from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Other than Owaisi, the MPs who did not vote were: Vishvendra Singh (BJP, Bharatpur), Thupstan Chhewang (independent, Ladakh), an MP from Assam and Rajya Sabha member Obaidullah Azmi (Congress), said Parliamentary Affairs minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi after the polling.
On the other hand, three members of the Samajwadi Party – part of the UNPA – defied the party decision and voted. Dasmunsi named them as Beni Prasad Verma, Raj Babbar and Munawwar Husain.
Five Samajwadi Party legislators voted in Bhopal too.
While the UNPA announcement to abstain was made by AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa, her party's MPs and legislators went ahead and voted. She later blamed an Election Commission statement on abstention for "creating confusion".