Two Samajwadi Party MLAs in the Bihar assembly broke ranks with the Third Front, which had said that it will abstain from the presidential election, and voted for NDA-backed independent Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
There was no communication from the party's leadership asking the MLAs not to vote and they exercised their franchise in favour of Shekhawat, Devnath Yadav and G K Agarwal, the only two SP MLAs in the 243-member Bihar assembly, told media persons after voting.
Yadav, the leader of the SP legislature party and the MLA from Phulparas, said the RJD and Congress were like 'poison' to him and his party and so he could not have voted for UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil.
"We want decentralisation of power and voting for Shekhawat was one option. Moreover, no central leader asked us either through a written communication or on telephone not to participate in the presidential vote. So we were free to make our own choice," said Agarwal, the MLA from Thakurganj in Araria district.
SP MLAs vote in MP:
Five more SP legislators took part in the presidential elections in Madhya Pradesh.
As 226 of the state's 228 MLAs cast their votes by 1430 hours at the assembly premises, only two Samajwadi Party members were yet to participate in the polling.
Of the party's seven legislators, five had voted, officials said.
The five lawmakers who voted despite their party's decision to abstain are Vanshmani Prasad Verma, Vijaybahadur Singh Bundela, Krishna Kumar Singh, Arjun Palia and Vikram Singh, they said.
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