Rubbing salt into the wounds of the BJP, smarting from cross-voting by some of its MLAs in the Presidential poll, party strongman B S Yeddyurappa today said Pranab Mukherjee should have been elected unanimously and consensus eluded due to lack of foresight and divergent views.

His statement in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly as members congratulated Mukherjee created a flutter in the BJP, coming a day after the poll in which 14 BJP MLAs cross-voted in favour of the UPA's Presidential candidate.

"All parties should have come together and there should have been a thinking to elect him unanimously but because of lack of foresight, difference in opinion and other reasons, the election became inevitable," said Yeddyurappa, who recently virtually forced the BJP central leadership to make his nominee Jagadish Shettar the Chief Minister.

The former Karnataka Chief Minister also made a strong appeal to the BJP-led NDA's losing candidate Purno A Sangma to refrain from "misadventure" of approaching the Supreme Court.