New Delhi: Ruling NDA’s candidate Droupadi Murmu is pitted against Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha in the contest for the 15th president of India, the results of which will be announced on Thursday. As per reports, votes are clearly stacked in favour of Murmu, who if elected, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the country’s highest constitutional post. With the tenure of Ram Nath Kovind ending on July 24, the new president will take oath on July 25.
As per reports, the ballot boxes have reached the Parliament House where counting will start in room number 63, the strongroom of Parliament, on Thursday.
Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody, the Chief Returning Officer for the election, will be overseeing the counting of votes, the result of which is likely to be declared by evening.
According to PTI sources, Mody will first brief on the election trends after all votes of MPs are counted and then after counting of votes of 10 states in alphabetical order. He will once again brief after the counting of 20 states, before announcing the final result.
It is to be noted that all the ballot boxes from state assemblies reached the Parliament's strongroom on Tuesday and have been locked there since. The ballot boxes were flown into New Delhi as ‘Mr Ballot Box' from across states, under the watchful gaze of Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) of the respective states.
On Monday, the Election Commission had posted photographs of the sealed ballot boxes onboard flights accompanied by AROs. According to ECI, each ballot box was issued an e-ticket under the name 'Mr Ballot Box'.
Polling for the 15th presidential election was held between 10am and 5pm on Monday at 31 locations, including the Parliament House and 30 centres within the state legislative assemblies.
As per reports, there have been cross-voting in favour of Murmu in a number of states.
Notably, a total of 4,809 electors, comprising 776 MPs and 4,033 elected MLAs are entitled to cast their vote in the presidential polls, while nominated MPs, MLAs, and Members of Legislative Council are not.
As per ECI data, over 99 per cent of total electors had cast their votes on Monday. Eight MPs, including BJP MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, were among those who gave it a pass.
Two MPs each from BJP and Shiv Sena, and one each from the BSP, Congress, SP, and AIMIM also missed voting in the Monday elections.
It is to be noted that Ram Nath Kovind had become the President after polling 7,02,044 votes, out of a total of 10,69,358 votes, while his rival Meira Kumar had polled 3,67,314.