Bhopal, July 12: MP Krishna Murari Moghe has lost his parliamentary membership — and his party 708 votes.

What’s the link?

Enough, in these times, to have made the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance rush to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to tarry a while.

For those not conversant with the rules that govern presidential polls, the Election Commission’s advice that the senior BJP leader’s Lok Sabha membership be terminated spelt further doom for the NDA’s president hopes.

Acceptance of the recommendation would mean the gap has widened between Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Pratibha Patil, the presidential nominee of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

What the NDA feared came true today when Kalam endorsed the recommendation of the poll panel, which had sent its opinion to the President last month.

Moghe got in trouble over his continuation as head of the Madhya Pradesh parliamentary group, a post that has the status of a cabinet minister and didn’t figure on the list of offices of profit exempted under the law.

Former Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh had created the cell 10 years ago.

Earlier, a delegation of BJP leaders headed by Sushma Swaraj had called on the President on June 28 to plead that Moghe be given a chance to cast votes during the upcoming presidential elections. Moghe’s ballot is worth 708 votes, which is the vote value of each of the 770-odd MPs of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

The 4,120 MLAs, who are also part of the electoral college, account for 5,49,474 votes, but the value of their ballots is not the same. It depends on the population of their states.

So, while an MLA in Uttar Pradesh has a vote value of 208, his counterpart in Sikkim has the lowest value — seven.

The commission’s move against Moghe followed a complaint from Jamuna Devi, the leader of the Opposition in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

Moghe had told the poll panel that he was unaware of any salary or perks that he was drawing from the state’s finance department.