11 states, 1 UT report 100% voting in Presidential poll
Over 99% of 4,796 elected MPs and MLAs cast their vote on Monday to choose a new President of India on Monday with 11 states and a union territory, including Karnataka, clocking 100% voting.
Except for 42 lawmakers – eight MPs and 34 MLAs, all other 4,754 – 763 of 771 MPs and 3,991 of 4,025 MLAs – voted in the Presidential election, which is heavily tilted in favour of ruling NDA’s candidate Droupadi Murmu against joint Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
According to the Election Commission, the polling was held in 31 locations, including Parliament House where 718 MPs and nine MLAs voted. It said there was 100% voting in Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu. Total voting was 99.12%.
If elected, Murmu will be the first tribal and second woman to become the Indian president. Parties, including those aligned with the Opposition, having votes worth 6.61 lakh in an electoral college of 10.86 lakh, have pledged her support while Sinha was having only 4.19 lakh votes.
Sinha may see his votes further dwindling as some Opposition MPs “listened to their conscience” and voted for Murmu in states like Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gujarat among others. The MPs who missed the voting were two each from BJP -- Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, and BSP -- Haji Fazulur Rehman and Atul Singh -- as well as one each MPs from Congress (Mohd Sadique), AIMIM (Imtiyaz Jaleel), Shiv Sena ( Gajanan Kirtikar) and DMK (T R Paarivendher).
Rebel Congress MLA in Haryana Kuldeep Bishnoi, who voted in Parliament, said he voted as per his conscience. His vote in Rajya Sabha elections had gone to independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, leading to the defeat of Congress candidate Ajay Maken.
In Assam, PTI reported, AIUDF MLA Karimuddin Barbhuiyan claimed that around 20 Congress MLAs voted for Murmu. In Uttar Pradesh, Shivpal Yadav said he cannot support Sinha, as he had accused his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav of being an “ISI agent”.
Congress MLA in Odisha Mohammed Moquim said he has voted in favour of Murmu as she was a "daughter of Odisha". NCP MLAs Kamlesh Singh (Jharkhand) and Kandhal Jadega (Gujarat) too said they broke ranks with the Opposition to vote for Murmu.
Akali Dal MLA Manpreet Ayali said he boycotted the election, as he accused the BJP and the Congress of not addressing the issues of Punjab. He also said his party did not discuss with him or the Sikh community before committing its support to Murmu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first voter in Parliament while ailing former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to Parliament in a wheelchair to vote. Wheelchair-bound Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav too voted in Parliament.
Yadav and Minister of State Nisith Pramanik were given a second chance to vote as they faltered in the first attempt.