The recent Vice Presidential election, held on September 9th, has become the center of a heated debate following the victory of NDA candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan. Accusations of cross-voting and vote buying have surfaced, with opposition parties leveling serious charges against the BJP. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee accused the BJP of purchasing votes from opposition MPs, alleging that each vote was bought for sums ranging from 15 to 20 crore rupees. He claimed that the BJP’s actions undermined democracy.
Banerjee stated that BJP leaders arrived with bags of cash to influence the election outcome. While Radhakrishnan secured 452 votes, his opponent, B. Sudarshan Reddy, received 300. This disparity has fueled speculation about cross-voting among some MPs.
Banerjee further claimed that he learned from discussions that the BJP spent between 15-20 crore rupees to buy each MP’s vote. He questioned the increased vote share for the NDA while the support for the INDIA bloc seemingly decreased. He also referred to previous instances of alleged vote manipulation by the BJP, including attempts to distribute cash in the 2021 Bengal assembly elections and attempts to bribe polling agents in 2024.
Several opposition figures have voiced their concerns. Congress leader Manish Tewari called for a thorough investigation into any cross-voting. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav asserted that his party’s MPs voted for the INDIA bloc. NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule questioned how the BJP could know who voted for whom given the secret ballot. Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) accused the BJP of sowing seeds of betrayal and manipulating agencies for their own gain.
The BJP has dismissed these accusations as baseless, with state BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya stating that the election results demonstrated the NDA’s unity in contrast to the divided opposition.