Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi: The polling to elect the 14th President of India began at 10am on Monday across 32 polling stations, which includes one in Parliament House and one in each state legislative assembly. This time, chances are very high that cross voting would take place in the poll. The main contest is between former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind, backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, who is backed by the Congress and other opposition parties.
The Election Commission (EC) has appointed 33 observers to oversee the conduct of election. Voting will close at 5pm today. The total value of the electoral college is 10,98,903. The ballot boxes will be brought to Delhi for counting on 20 July.
Here are the latest updates and developments from today’s presidential polls:
The AAP has announced its support to former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar. However, citing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, senior AAP leader H S Phoolka, who is a legislator from Punjab, did not participate in the polling today.
AAP’s ally the Lok Insaaf Party had earlier announced its support to Kovind.
The Congress, which stormed to power in Punjab in March after a gap of 10 years, has 77 MLAs in the 117-member state Assembly, while the AAP has 20 and the Lok Insaaf Party two.
The SAD-BJP coalition has 18 MLAs (Shiromani Akali Dal 15, BJP three) in the Punjab Assembly.
Among the Lok Sabha members from Punjab, the Congress has four, the SAD three, the BJP had two but recently, its Gurdaspur MP Vinod Khanna passed away.
The AAP has four Lok Sabha members from Punjab, of whom two have been suspended by the party.
In the Rajya Sabha, the Congress and the SAD have three members each, while the BJP has a lone member from the state in the Upper House of Parliament.
In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the ruling BJP enjoys a majority with 47 MLAs and the support of five Independents, while the Congress has 17 MLAs.
INLD, the principal opposition, has 19 members, while the SAD and the BSP have one MLA each.
Among the Lok Sabha MPs from Haryana, the BJP has seven, the INLD two and the Congress one.
In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has one member of the five from the state and media baron Subhash Chandra, an Independent member, was elected to the Upper House last year with the saffron party’s support.
The Congress has two Rajya Sabha members from Haryana, while the INLD has one.
Voting for the presidential election was underway at the West Bengal Assembly with several legislators casting their votes.
Subrata Mukherjee, Rajiv Banerjee, Shashi Panja and Lakshmi Ratan Shukla were among the prominent Trinamool Congress MLAs to cast their votes.
CPI(M) legislator Sujan Chakraborty and Congress MLA Manoj Mukherjee also exercised their voting rights for the presidential elections which began at 10 am in the 295-member state Assembly.
The TMC, CPI(M) and Congress’ have already expressed support to Opposition nominee, Meira Kumar. Three MLAs from the BJP and other three from its political ally Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)—Saritha Rai, Dr Rohit Sharma and Amar Singh Rai—also exercised their franchise.
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra and BJP legislature party leader K. V. Singhdeo cast their votes for the presidential poll Bhubaneswar today.
As the voting process began in the state Assembly, legislators belonging to different political parties joined the polling process and cast their votes.
Patnaik and Mishra were among the first to cast their votes. The other early voters were K V Singhdeo, legislator from Patnagarh, Basant Panda, BJP state unit president and former union minister Dilip Ray.
NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind is being supported by the ruling BJD in Odisha. Kovind was in Odisha on 14 July and met leaders of BJD and BJP at separate meetings in the state capital.
The UPA candidate Meira Kumar could not visit Odisha in the run up to the presidential election since her tour was cancelled.
While there are 117 BJD MLAs in the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the Congress has 16 legislators, the BJP 10, the CPI-M and the Samata Kranti Dal have one MLA each. There are two independent MLAs in the house.
100% polling was recorded in the voting for the presidential election in Himachal with all 67 MLAs casting their vote. One seat is lying vacant in the 68-member House following death of Congress MLA Karan Singh. All 28 BJP members and one independent cast their vote in a row followed by Congress members led by CM Virbhadra Singh and his colleagues.
The ruling Congress has a strength of 35 members while BJP has 28 members. Both BJP and Congress have claimed support of two independent members each. The ballot boxes would be sent to Chandigarh tomorrow morning and flown to Delhi, a Vidhan Sabha official said.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejirwal today said MLAs should vote in the presidential poll according to their conscience. Earlier in the day, an opposition BJP MLA had claimed that “10-12 legislators” of the ruling AAP had voted for the NDA’s candidate, Ram Nath Kovind.
“We are supporting Meira Kumar (opposition presidential candidate). All should vote following their conscience,” Kejriwal, who cast his vote in the Delhi assembly, said in response.
“In a democracy, whoever gets more votes wins,” Kejriwal added.
As voting for the presidential elections gathered steam with city legislators arriving at the assembly, among the first to vote were deputy CM Manish Sisodia, sacked AAP minister Kapil Mishra and Leader of Opposition in the assembly, Vijender Gupta.
“My vote went to one who is all set to become next president,” Mishra, who was the first AAP MLA to vote, told reporters here. “More than who wins, it is important that the country wins,” Sisodia said. BJP MLA Om Prakash Sharma had said, “Around 10-12 AAP MLAs, who are unhappy with Kejriwal, have cast their votes in favour of Ram Nath Kovind.
Voting for the presidential election began at the Goa secretariat at Porvorim today morning with chief minister Manohar Parrikar among those to cast vote in the first one hour.
Voting for the presidential election was underway in the Rajasthan Assembly today with over 122 legislators exercising their franchise. The voting commenced under tight security at 10 am and 122 legislators cast their votes, an assembly spokesperson said. The Rajasthan Assembly has 200 MLAs, of which 199 will cast their votes. Former CM Ashok Gehlot will vote in Gujarat, the spokesperson said.
“There is no rocket science, Ram Nath Kovind will win today,” NCP leader Praful Patel said in the Parliament House complex. “Because all MPs don’t necessarily vote only according to conscience, they also vote according to party lines and party lines are divided somewhat on ideology, principles and political positioning. So, I don’t read too much into any other statement, except the fact that this is a clear case of the NDA scoring big in terms of the numbers,” he added.
The voting for the presidential election started at the Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai this morning with Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is an MLA from Nagpur, among the early voters.
Former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar also reached the polling centre early to cast his vote. Jailed NCP MLAs Chhagan Bhujbal and Ramesh Kadam are also expected to cast their votes in the presidential election, a Vidhan Bhawan official said. A special PMLA court recently allowed Bhujbal’s application seeking permission to vote in the election.
The Bombay High Court had on Friday granted permission to NCP MLA Ramesh Kadam, who is in jail after his arrest in an alleged corruption case, to vote in the election.
There are 288 MLAs in Maharashtra who are eligible to vote in the election. Besides, there are 48 Lok Sabha MPs and 19 Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra. The MPs from the state are expected to vote in Delhi, the official said.
Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar says, “Today is a very important day. Today the collegium will take a decision. This contest is to fight for social justice, transparency, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of press. It’s an ideology that binds us together. I ask members of collegium to pay heed to the voice of their conscience and keep the best interest of the country in mind.”
Samajwadi Party legislator Shivpal Yadav says “NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind is a known to me already. He is our neighbour and a Dalit.”
With both Kovind and Kumar belonging to the Dalit community, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati expressed satisfaction that a Dalit leader would occupy office of the president irrespective of who won the poll.
Mayawati also claimed it was because of her party that the NDA and the opposition had to field candidates from the community.
“Winning or losing (a poll) is a different issue. Whoever wins, the good thing is a Scheduled Caste person will be the country’s president. And I think it is a good thing for our movement, the party. And the NDA, the BJP had to field a Dalit candidate for the presidential poll because of the BSP and the other side (the opposition) too,” she told reporters outside Parliament.