New Delhi, July 22: Counting of votes for the Presidential election – seen as a mere formality – has begun. The BJP-led has made preparations to celebrate the victory of Droupadi Murmu, who is expected to far outstrip Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha
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NDA’s Droupadi Murmu got a significant lead as votes of MPs were counted first. Of the 748 valid votes, she got 540, while Yashwant Sinha was at 204. Going by a formula based on population and assembly seats, MPs’ votes are about half of the electoral college.
Counting began around 1.30 pm at Parliament House. Results are expected around 4 pm. The process began at 11 am, and ballot boxes from all states were opened before starting the count.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Droupadi Murmu at her temporary lodgings in Teen Murti Marg and congratulate her after the election results are declared, sources said.
Delhi BJP has planned a roadshow after Ms Murmu’s victory from the party headquarters to Rajpath. Many senior leaders will be present on the occasion, sources said. All state units of the BJP have also planned victory processions, which will be taken out after the announcement of results.
The residents in Odisha’s Rairangpur, the hometown of Ms Murmu, are also ready to celebrate with 20,000 sweets prepared. A tribal dance and victory procession have also been planned.
The NDA choice of Ms Murmu — a tribal woman from Odisha and a former Jharkhand Governor — is seen as a move calculated to split the opposition and bring support from non-aligned parties like Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and the Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress.
Altogether, 34 parties declared support for Opposition candidate, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and 44 for Droupadi Murmu, the former Governor of Jharkhand. But several MLAs have confessed to crossvoting in favour of Ms Murmu.
The counting is preceded by sorting, in which votes of MPs and MLAs will be separated. The value of votes are set as per population and assembly seats.
The winner of the Presidential election is not the candidate who gets the most votes, but the one who gets more votes than a certain quota. The quota is determined by adding the votes polled for each candidate, dividing the sum by two and adding ‘1’ to it. The candidate who gets more votes than this value is the winner.
The President-elect will take oath on July 25.
Courtesy: ndtv.com