Two AAP legislators in Delhi too voted for Kovind

NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind got the votes of two AAP MLAs, apart from those of four BJP MLAs in the Delhi assembly in the July 17 presidential election.

While one of these Aam Aadmi Party lawmakers is most probably sacked Minister Kapil Mishra, who had come out in Kovind's support earlier on, the identity of the second is yet to be known.

Mishra said on the voting day: "My vote went to one who is all set to become the next President", clearly indicating he voted for Kovind.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) -- which has 65 lawmakers including dissidents, of whom only 63 voted in the presidential election -- had supported opposition candidate and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

According to Election Commission data, a total of 67 Delhi lawmakers voted -- 55 in favour of Meira Kumar, six for Kovind while six votes were rejected.

Two AAP legislators -- Devinder Sehrawat representing Bijwasan and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj -- were said to be out of the city and abroad respectively.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has four MLAs in the 70-member assembly.

The AAP originally had 67 MLAs but its strength was reduced to 65 after one seat fell vacant as its Bawana MLA Ved Prakash resigned and joined the BJP earlier this year and the party lost the Rajouri Garden seat to BJP's Manjinder Singh Sirsa in a by-poll.

The AAP has six dissident MLAs -- Kapil Mishra, Asim Ahmed Khan, Sandeep Kumar, Jitender Singh Tomar, Pankaj Pushkar and Sehrawat.

--IANS

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