The Presidential poll on Monday saw over 99 per cent electoral turnout which included, among others, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Home Minister Amit Shah.
The poll saw cross-voting in favour of NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu at the cost of Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
According to the Election Commission, out of a total 4,796 electors in the list of the electoral college for the Presidential election, over 99 per cent cast their votes.
The commission said ten States — Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim, and Tamil Nadu — and the Union Territory of Puducherry reported 100 per cent voting by MLAs.
NDA presidential candidate Murmu is certain to win the poll against Sinha. If elected, she will be the first tribal to hold the highest Constitutional post in the country.
The NDA candidate’s vote percentage has widened from 48 per cent to 60 per cent with the support of non-NDA Opposition parties, including Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, JDS, BSP, Shiv Sena, AIADMK, and Akali Dal.
Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress and Odisha’s BJD had announced their support ahead of the filing of Presidential papers.
Sinha, who is projected as a joint-Opposition candidate, did not get the backing from all the Opposition formations with many of like JMM, JDS and Akali Dal switching sides to support Murmu creating fissures in the Opposition camp in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Modi, Manmohan, Shah, and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi cast their votes at the Parliament house. Singh and former UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav came in wheel-chairs to cast their votes.
While MPs thronged Parliament’s Room number 63 which had been converted into a polling station to cast their vote, MLAs headed to State Assemblies.
A total of 4,809 electors, including 776 MPs and 4,033 elected MLAs, were entitled to vote in the election but nominated MPs and MLAs, and Members of the Legislative Council are not eligible to vote in the Presidential poll.
In Delhi, voting ended with 98.90 per cent of the electors permitted to vote in Parliament House exercising their franchise, said Returning Officer PC Mody.
Briefing reporters after the voting, he said 736 electors - 727 MPs and nine MLAs - had been permitted by the Election Commission to vote at Parliament House. Eight MPs, including BJP’s Sunny Deol, did not cast their vote.
As polling gathered pace for a race in which the end result is seemingly clear, Sinha appealed to parliamentarians and legislators to listen to their “inner voice” and support him.
“I have repeatedly said this election is very important as it will decide the direction as to whether democracy will remain in India or will slowly end. The indications that we are getting is that we are moving towards its end,” the 84-year-old told reporters.
Murmu, who at 64 could be among the youngest Presidents of India, did not speak today but said on Sunday that tribals and women are delighted over her nomination.
The votes will be counted on July 21 and the next President will take oath on July 25.
Irrespective of Opposition candidate Sinha’s appeal to “inner voice vote “, in Assam, AIUDF MLA Karimuddin Barbhuiyan claimed that around 20 Congress MLAs from the State cross-voted.
In Uttar Pradesh, Shivpal Singh Yadav of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia claimed he would never support Sinha as he had once accused his brother, SP patriarch Mulayam, of being an “ISI agent”.
Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had cross-voted in last month’s Rajya Sabha polls, also indicated that he had supported the ruling NDA candidate.
“Like Rajya Sabha, I have cast my vote in this election too as per my conscience,” he told reporters.
Congress MLA in Odisha Mohammed Moquim created a flutter by announcing that he had voted in favour of Murmu as she was a “daughter of Odisha”. In Jharkhand, NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh announced his backing for Murmu and said he went by his “conscience call”.
His party colleague Kandhal Jadeja echoed him in Gujarat. “I cast my vote for the BJP candidate,” he said.
Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil was confident some Congress legislators, who were absent during the Eknath Shinde Government’s trust vote, voted for Murmu.
“I am sure some Congress MLAs who remained absent during the vote of confidence will apply their conscience this time as well,” Patil said in Mumbai.
The Congress, he said, can’t guard its own MLAs.
Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali chose to boycott the poll and blamed the BJP-led Centre, previous Congress-led Governments
As per Article 54 of the Constitution, the President of India is elected by the Members of an Electoral College consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament, and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all States [including National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The members nominated to either House of Parliament or the Legislative Assemblies of States, including the NCT of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry, are not eligible to be included in the Electoral College.
