Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted Monday to elect the next President and by the time voting concluded, there were enough indications that NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu was set for an emphatic win against Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Votes will be counted on July 21 and the next President will take oath on July 25.
The Election Commission said: “As per reports being received, out of a total of 771 Members of Parliament entitled to vote (05 vacant) and similarly out of total 4025 Members of the Legislative Assemblies entitled to vote (06 vacant and 02 disqualified), over 99% cast their votes today. However, 100% voting by MLAs was reported from Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu.”
Polling for presidential election concludes with over 99% voter turnout.
Two MLAs, Anant Kumar Singh and Mahendra Hari Dalvi,were not eligible to vote in the election, owing to disqualification under Section 8 of R P Act, 1951 subsequent to judgment of the competent Court, the EC said.
Sources said eight MPs did not vote — Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre (BJP); Syed Imtiaz Jaleel (AIMIM); Gajanan Kirtikar (Shiv Sena); Mohammad Sadique (Congress); T R Paarivendhar (DMK); Haji Fazlur Rehman and Atul Kumar Singh (BSP).