The MLAs and elected members of Parliament are the voters in the presidential election. The BJP has organised a mock voting drill for the MLAs on Sunday. Three persons, who got trained at a party session in Delhi on how voters should go about their exercise, will conduct the drill on Sunday, said a BJP functionary.
The BJP MPs from Karnataka have been asked to report to a designated place in Delhi on Saturday.
Sections of BJP MLAs were confused about the purpose the party planned to achieve by lodging them in a hotel and footing a fat bill.
MLAs are not bound by a whip since a party cannot issue one in presidential polls. Nor can a polling agent check their ballot papers after they have voted. The Election Commission conducts a secret ballot in presidential elections. It has clarified more than once in the past that voters in a presidential election do not come under the ambit of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and they are to exercise their free will and choice in the presidential election.
The electors are at liberty to vote or not to vote in the presidential election. In the Rajya Sabha polls held in Bengaluru in June, the BJP had issued a whip and assigned candidates they should vote for. The top preference in allotment of votes was given to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The voters – MLAs in this case – were required to show their ballots to a party agent to establish they had complied with the party whip. Yet, a confident BJP did not take them to a resort or a hotel and lodge them in one place to prevent any cross-voting.
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