Presidential Polls: 4,800 MPs & MLAs To Vote For President

About 4800 elected MPs and MLAs will vote on Monday to elect the 15th President of India. More than 60 per cent of votes are expected in favour of NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu against the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

On 24 July Ramnath Kovind will complete his presidential tenure. As per article 62 of the Constitution of India, an election has to be conducted to fill the vacancy which is caused by the expiration of the tenure of the current president and is required to be completed before the expiration of the tenure.

The 15th Presidential Election

The President of India is elected by the members of the electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly of all states, including Delhi, which is the capital territory of the country, and the Union Territory (UT) of Puducherry. The ballot boxes have already reached their destination and the polling will be conducted in Parliament House and the State Legislative Assembly between the time duration of 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The commission will distribute the appropriate pens for voting. When the ballot paper is handed over to the electors, the pen will be given to them by the designated official. It is mandatory for the electrols to mark the vote with this particular pen only and not with any other. Voting with any other pen will lead to the invalidation of the vote.

Members of Parliament usually vote in New Delhi's Parliament House, while members of the State Assembly vote in their respective state Legislative Assembly.

If any exigency or any special circumstance arises, members of the Parliament may vote at any of the approved polling places in the Legislative Assembly of the states or NCT of Delhi or UT Puducherry. Similarly, MLAs can also cast their vote in Parliament House, New Delhi, or in any of the approved places of voting.

The counting of votes will commence at the Parliament house on  21 July and the oath will be taken by the new President on 25 July.

It is anticipated that with the huge support from the regional parties like BJD, YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK, TDP, JD (S), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, and now JMM, Murmu is likely to receive two-thirds of the votes. If she wins, she will be the first woman from the tribe community to hold the highest constitutional position.

The NDA candidate has more than 6.67 lakh votes due to the support from the regional parties out of the total votes of 10,86,431.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest vote value per MLA as it stands at 208, followed by Jharkhand (176) and lastly, Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra state, it is 175 and in the smaller states like Sikkim, the value of vote is only seven. And in Nagaland, it stands at nine.

An electoral candidate is required to mark his or her preferences for each candidate by marking the numbers 1,2,3,4,5, and so on next to their names according to their preferences.

As per the Election Commission, the MPS will be given a green-coloured ballet paper while the MLAs will be given a pink one. The separate colours will actually help to identify the individual votes of the MLA's and the MPs.