NCUI President and Rajya Sabha member Chandra Pal Singh Yadav was not present at the time of voting for the Deputy Speaker elections for the Upper House in which Opposition had tried to put up a common candidate.
NDA’s Harivansh won the election by securing 125 votes while Opposition’s candidate B K Hariprased could just bag 101 votes, though it was calculated that he would get 118 votes.
An analysis of the absentees have thrown up the fact that both Chandra Pal and Beniprasad from Samajwadi Party were not there to vote for the UPA candidate.
There were 18 absentee MPs. While three members of the Congress did not turn up for voting two members of the TMC were also absent, among others.
Had it been a matter of one or two votes, it would have mattered. But NDA was far ahead of UPA to give rise to the issue of absentee MPs, said a source.