Odisha's and Telangana's principal opposition parties, the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi, on Monday announced that their MPs will abstain from voting in the vice presidential elections.
The BJD, headed by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, said it took the decision as part of its policy of "maintaining an equal distance" from both the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and Congress-led INDIA bloc at the national level.
"BJD president Naveen Patnaik has decided that the party's MPs will abstain from voting in the vice presidential elections. He took the decision after consulting senior party leaders, members of the political affairs committee (PAC) and lawmakers," BJD MP Sasmit Patra told reporters in Bhubaneswar.
Patra said that the BJD maintains an equal distance from both the NDA and the INDIA bloc.
"Our entire focus is on the development of the state and its 4.5 crore people," Patra said.
Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti working president K T Rama Rao on Monday said his party would abstain from the vice presidential election on September 9 as an expression of "anguish" of Telangana's farmers over the shortage of urea in the state.
Both the Congress and BJP have "failed" to address the shortage issue, he alleged.
The shortage is such that scuffles are taking place among farmers while waiting in queues for urea, the BRS leader said.
"We are abstaining. We are not going to participate," he told reporters.
The BRS could have exercised the option of NOTA had it been available in the vice presidential election, he said.
The vice presidential polls will be held on Tuesday.
Reacting to the development, both Congress and the BJP said that the decision will indirectly help the NDA candidate for the vice president's post.
Welcoming the decision, senior BJP leader and Union minister Jual Oram said, "By deciding that BJD MPs will abstain from voting, Naveen Babu has indirectly supported the NDA candidate."
The saffron party's Bargarh MP, Pradeep Purohit, echoed Oram in saying that the BJD's decision will benefit the NDA candidate.
"They have not opposed our candidate," he said.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das said, "Abstaining from voting means supporting the BJP... this was an opportunity for the BJD to prove that it is opposed to the saffron camp."