President poll: 99.5% vote, result on Thursday
Of the total 4,880 valid voters — 4,109 members of legislative Assemblies or MLAs and 771 elected members of Parliament (MPs) — 99.49 per cent on Monday voted to elect the next President of India. Three MPs and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strategists said they were confident that more than anticipated numbers of Opposition legislators and MPs voted for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, Ram Nath Kovind. The counting of votes is scheduled for July 20 but Kovind’s victory is not in doubt. The only point of interest is the margin of his victory, and whether some MLAs or MPs of the
17 Opposition parties supporting the candidature of Meira Kumar have also voted for him. “The voting was close to 99 per cent. I think this would perhaps be the highest-ever percentage,� Anoop Mishra, Lok Sabha, secretary general and returning officer for the election, said. Mishra said while the sanctioned strength of the Lok Sabha (LS) and the Rajya Sabha (RS) is 776 (543 and 233), 771 MPs were eligible to cast their votes. There are two vacancies each in the LS and the RS, while one BJP MP, Chhedi Paswan, does not have voting rights, following a judicial pronouncement, he said. Of the total 771 MPs who are entitled to vote (four vacancies and one disqualified), 768 or 99.61 per cent cast their votes. Likewise, of the 4,109 MLAs entitled to vote (10 vacancies and one disqualified), 4,083 or 99.37 per cent cast their votes, officials said.