E-Paper
Ram Nath Kovind vs Meira Kumar: Presidential poll results to be announced today
Ram Nath Kovind of the NDA contested against opposition candidate Meira Kumar in the 15the presidential election.
The suspense over who will occupy India’s top Constitutional post comes to an end on Thursday as counting of votes for the 15th presidential election takes place in New Delhi.
The name of the winning candidate will also be announced on the same day.
Ruling NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind looks set to defeat opposition candidate Meira Kumar but the counting will reveal the scale of victory. The winning candidate replaces Pranab Mukherjee, whose term ends on July 24.
Voting for the post of President took place on July 17 for which 32 polling stations, including the one at Parliament House, were set up in various states.
Lok Sabha secretary general Anoop Mishra, also the returning officer for the presidential election, said the counting will begin at 11am.
The ballot box of Parliament House will be opened first, followed by the ballot boxes received from states in alphabetical order.
The votes will be counted on four separate tables and there will be eight rounds of counting.
The BJP claimed Kovind had the support of more than 40 political parties, which accounted for more than 70% of the electoral college with a total vote value of 10,98,903.
India’s President is elected through a complex voting pattern involving MPs from the two houses of Parliament and members of the legislative assemblies.
A total of 4,896 voters — 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs — were eligible to cast their ballot.
While the value of an MLA’s vote depends on the population of the state he or she belongs to, the value of an MP’s vote remains the same at 708.
Close to 99% voting was recorded for electing India’s next president.
