Make voting compulsory in elections for posts of president, VP: Shiv Sena (UBT)

Mumbai, Sep 12 (PTI) The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Friday demanded making voting compulsory while electing president and vice-president of the country and said registration of political parties involved in "horse-trading" and who abstain from polls for these top constitutional posts must be cancelled.

In an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana', the party said the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and others got "scared" of central probe agencies, "like always", and decided to abstain from the September 9 vice-presidential polls.

"This (abstaining from voting) is unconstitutional," the editorial argued.

The BJD and the BRS abstained from voting in the vice-presidential polls, where the ruling BJP-led NDA's nominee CP Radhakrishanan emerged victorious by defeating the joint Opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy by a margin of 152 votes.

The Shiromani Akali Dal, a former BJP ally, boycotted the elections, claiming the flood-hit people of Punjab have not received help from the state government, the Centre or the Congress.

"There should be a provision that no one can abstain from voting (in polls for president and VP). On one hand, there is a demand to make voting (in Lok Sabha and state assembly elections) compulsory, but at the same time parties get involved in horse-trading and boycott polls. The registration of such parties should be cancelled," the Marathi daily emphasised.

The president is chosen by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of Parliament and elected members of the legislative assemblies of states and Union Territories. The vice-president is elected by an electoral college consisting of the members of both House of Parliament.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) also demanded the new Vice-President Radhakrishnan, who took oath on Friday, formulate a law to stop "horse-trading" by ruling parties in elections for top constitutional posts like the president and VP.

Announcing the result of the vice-presidential polls, Rajya Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P C Mody said 767 MPs out of the total 781 electors cast their votes. He said 752 ballots were valid and 15 invalid, bringing down the required majority of first preference votes to 377.

Radhakrishnan bagged 452 votes and Reddy 300.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said most of the invalid votes were in favour of Reddy.

It asked when BJP's allies, an oblique reference to rival Shiv Sena, claimed there was "horse-trading", what was the Election Commission of India (ECI) doing?.

The ECI can not even hold seriously polls to the posts of president and vice-president, said the Opposition party.

The party said barring two to five MPs, no from the Opposition INDIA bloc resorted to "betrayal" in the vice-presidential polls.

The editorial alleged that foreign trips were arranged for the MPs who cross-voted. PTI PR RSY