Voting for Presidential election end at Parliament. Chief Returning Officer PC Mody told the Presidential poll was performed peacefully and cordially everywhere. The total turnout at Parliament was at 99.18 pc. Ballot boxes to reach in Parliament from across country by this (Monday) evening, he told.
Out of 736 electors (727 MPs, 9 MLAs) allowed of by the Election Commission (EC) to vote in Parliament in the Presidential poll, 730 (721 MPs, 9 MLAs) voted, told Chief Returning Officer PC Mody.
Ballot boxes from across the states will reach Delhi via road and air; assistant returning officers will escort them: Returning Officer for presidential poll PC Mody told news agency PTI.
NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu is bidding the election against opposition’s nominee Yashwant Sinha. The numbers are loaded in Murmu’s favour after she earned support from unlikely quarters with parties like Shiv Sena, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha broadening their support recently. She had already received support from Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress Party.
Yashwant Sinha, the former union minister, was chosen opposition candidate after Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, declined to run for the post. On Saturday, he made a plea to BJP lawmakers exhorting them to vote for him.
The president is indirectly appointed through an electoral college which encompasses members of parliament of both houses and members of legislative assemblies of all states and union territories. The nominated members are incapable to vote.
The results of elections for the President of India will be announced on July 21. The term of President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24.
