New Delhi: The counting of votes for the Presidential election will begin at 11 am on Sunday and the result is likely to be out by 4 pm. The UPA looks confident of its candidate Pranab Mukherjee's win by a huge margin. It's advantage Pranab Mukherjee with major political parties supporting him.
With Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee falling in line, it's almost certain now that UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee will be the 14th President of India. Other than all the UPA allies, parties such as SP and BSP as well as the Left are supporting the former Finance Minister.
Congress-led UPA has claimed Pranab Mukherjee will win around 70 per cent of the votes in the direct contest with PA Sangma, the former Lok Sabha Speaker who is backed by some opposition parties.
As per the norm, the ballot boxes from the states have been brought to the national capital for the counting. The counting will take place in room number 63 of Parliament.
The polling percentage has been less than expected this time with only 72 per cent of the total votes - valued at 11 lakh - polled. Of the total votes polled - estimated to be around 8 lakh - Pranab is expecting around 5.6 lakh votes.
As of now, only the vote of Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has been declared invalid by the Election Commission on the ground that he violated the code of secrecy by revealing his vote. Yadav had initially voted for Sangma and then torn the ballot paper when he realised his mistake.
Kanu Kalsaria, BJP MLA from Mahuva in Gujarat, voted for Pranab and openly declared that he did so as he is unhappy with the functioning of the Narendra Modi government.
At least 72 per cent of MPs and MLAs across the country voted to elect a new President. As many as 4,120 MLAs and 776 MPs with a total vote value of 10.98 lakh votes were eligible to cast their ballot in the election. As per information received from 22 states, 2937 MLAs and 40 MPs had cast their votes.
The new President will be administered the oath of office by the Chief Justice of India on July 25.
Presidential election: The process
The President of India is elected by an electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs.
- 776 MPs, all except nominated ones, cast their vote.
- 4120 MLAs cast their vote.
- 708 votes is the value of each MP's vote.
- Meanwhile, the value of an MLA's vote is variable. It depends on the population of the state the MLA represents.
Pranab vs Sangma: How the numbers stack up
Support for Pranab: UPA (+TMC) + RJD + SP + BSP + JDS + CPM + FB + NDA allies (Shiv Sena and JDU) = 66.7 per cent
Support for Sangma: BJP + SAD + JMM + BJD + AIADMK = 30.3 per cent
Undecided parties: TDP + others = 3 per cent
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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