SHILLONG, July 8: Members of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance will meet soon to finalise their preference of candidate for the presidential election slated on July 18.
While it is a foregone conclusion that the MDA coalition partners will support the National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu the five suspended Congress MLAs are having a second thought on their support to the NDA candidate after being sidelined and ignored during Murmu’s visit to the state on Wednesday.
“A meeting of the MDA will be convened to finalise the voting which will take place on 18,” Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said on Friday.
The Opposition has declared Yashwant Sinha as its joint presidential candidate.
The BJP, which has two MLAs in the state, is a constituent of the ruling coalition while the Regional Democratic Alliance (RDA), consisting of the UDP and the HSPDP, has already decided to support her.
The Congress and the AITC view her candidature as another trick by the BJP to fool the country’s tribal populace. As per Article 54, the President is elected by an electoral college consisting of elected Members of Parliament (MP) of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and elected Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of all states and UTs of National Capital Territory of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry. The President is voted by a secret ballot and not by EVM.
Unlike direct elections, a vote of an MP or MLA is not counted as one. The value is determined based on the population of a state in accordance with the Census data of 1971. As of 2022, the electoral college comprises 776 MPs and 4,033 MLAs. Overall, the members of the electoral college are eligible to cast 1,098,903 votes, yielding a threshold for a majority of 549,452 votes.
According to Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor, the value of each vote of an MLA from the state is 17 while that of an MP is 700.
