Presidential election held on Monday witnessed nearly 99 per cent voting, counting on 20th
New Delhi, 17th July: Parliamentarians and legislators across India voted on Monday to elect the country’s 14th President in a direct contest between ruling NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and the opposition-backed candidate Dr. Meira Kumar. Polling to choose the successor of incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee, who demits office on July 25, started simultaneously in the national and state capitals at 10 a.m. All elected MPs and MLAs were eligible to cast their vote. The voting was through secret ballot. As voting picked up, many MPs, including women members, were seen queuing up in Parliament House outside the polling booth in Room No 62 for the voting that ended at 5 p.m. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah were among the first to cast their votes in Parliament. Prime Minister reached the parliament premises early to vote. It is also the first day of the over three-week monsoon session of Parliament. The returning officer announced that, the election for the 14th President witnessed nearly 99 per cent voting, which was perhaps the highest-ever percentage of voting in any Presidential poll.
The counting of votes will take place on July 20th. The numbers are stacked in favour of the ruling coalition’s nominee Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar governor, over the opposition’s candidate and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Puducherry recorded 100 per cent voting. In Parliament House, the voting percentage was 99 percent. While the sanctioned strength of the Lok Sabhaand the Rajya Sabha is 776, 771 MPs were eligible to cast their votes. There are two vacancies each in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, while one BJP MP Chedi Paswan does not have voting rights following a judicial pronouncement. In Delhi, 717 MPs were to cast their ballot but only 714 exercised their franchise. The TMC’s Tapas Pal, the BJD’s Ram Chandra Hansdak and Ambumani Ramadoss of the PMK did not cast their votes. Fifty-five MPs had sought permissions to cast their vote in state capitals. These included Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union minister Uma Bharti. BJP chief Amit Shah, who is an MLA from Gujarat, had also sought permission to cast his vote in Delhi. Trinamool Congress MPs cast their votes in Kolkata. West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool president Mamata Banerjee said all TMC lawmakers voted for the joint opposition candidate, Meira Kumar, in the presidential election to register their protest against “what is going on in the country”. She claimed that Kumar would get the maximum number of votes from West Bengal. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, even if the party is supporting Opposition candidate Meira Kumar, MLAs were asked to vote in the presidential poll according to their conscience. In Odisha Chief minister Nabin Pattnaik and Opposition Leader Narasingha Mishra voted at State Assembly with their party MPs and MLAs. The presidential election is through secret ballot and party whip is not applicable. As lawmakers voted to elect the next president, the ruling BJP exuded confidence that Kovind would win with a”comfortable” margin. Counting of votes will begin at 11 AM on July 20. First the ballot box of Parliament House will be opened, and then, the ballot boxes received from states will be counted on alphabetical basis. Thirty two polling stations including the one in Parliament house, were set up in various states. A total of 4,896 voters , 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs eligible to cast their ballot. MLCs of states with legislative council are not part of the electoral college. While the value of an MLA’s vote depends on the population of the state he or she belongs to, the value of an MP’s vote remains the same at 708.
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR READERS