On Monday, 119 of the 126 legislators voted in the presidential election in the assembly at Dispur.
123 of the 126 MLAs voted in the assembly, while Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah has requested permission to vote in the Parliament while undergoing treatment in New Delhi. Suzzamuddin Laskar and Nizamuddin Choudhury, both AIUDF legislators, are currently abroad.
Before voting began at 10 a.m., legislators from both the ruling NDA and the opposition Congress and AIUDF were seen queuing on the assembly grounds. According to an official, the majority of cabinet ministers and Opposition Leader Debabrata Saikia have cast their valuable votes.
AIUDF MLAs arrived in a group to vote, but two of their 15 legislators did not participate because they were away in Saudi Arabia performing Hajj.
AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal had previously stated that the party would vote for NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu, but changed their mind a day before the election and stated that its lawmakers would vote for Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Several BJP MLAs went to Ajmal’s house on Sunday, making a plea with him to reconsider his decision and vote for Murmu. In response, party MLA Aminul Islam stated on Monday, “BJP has double standards. On one hand, it says it does not have anything to do with AIUDF, and on the other, it does not hesitate to shamelessly ask for our votes.”
An Assam MLAs vote is worth 116 out of a total of 14,616. The ruling NDA has 79 MLAs, and three BPF members who support the alliance but have not formally joined it are likely to vote for Murmu as well.
Congress has 27 MLAs, but three of them have been suspended for anti-party activities, and they have not stated who they will vote for. Monoranjan Talukdar of the CPI (M) and Akhil Gogoi of the Independent Party have both pledged their support for Sinha.
Assam has 21 MPs, 14 in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha, with a total vote value of 14,700.