New Delhi, July 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday cast their votes in Parliament House to elect the next President of India.
Polling is currently underway in Parliament and state assemblies.
The polling began at 10 am with Modi being among the first leaders to vote. Chief Ministers from several states and MLAs also voted.
The voting process will conclude at 5 pm. The counting of votes will take place in Parliament on July 21.
More than 4,800 MPs and MLAs will choose the next President. The NDA’s Droupadi Murmu is considered most likely to win. The opposition nominee is Yashwant Sinha.
NDA candidate Murmu is likely to get around 60 per cent of votes as several non-NDA partners have also extended support to her.
She has over 6.67 lakh votes after the support of various regional parties out of a total of 10,86,431 votes.
Once elected, Murmu will be the first tribal to occupy the highest post. Besides, she will be the first President born post independence.
Sinha is being supported by the Congress, NCP, AAP, AITC, CPI, CPI(M), SP, NC, DMK, AIMIM, RJD and AIUDF.
The new President will take oath to succeed Ram Nath Kovind on July 25.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Business Upturn staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
