NEW DELHI: The presidential polls, in which NDA’s Droupadi Murmu is pitted against the Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha, saw over 99% of the 4,796 MPs and MLAs cast their votes, with as many as 11 states and 1 UT reporting 100% turnout by their respective MLAs.
The Election Commission said while two MLAs — Anant Kumar Singh and Mahendra Hari Dalvi — were not eligible to vote in view of their disqualification under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, as per court orders, there are five vacancies in Rajya Sabha and six in the state assemblies.
Polling began in Parliament House with PM Narendra Modi casting the first vote. Former PM Manmohan Singh (89), who arrived in a wheelchair, was also among the first few to vote. Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav was also ferried to the ballot box in a wheelchair, while Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and RK Singh came in PPE suits. In Bihar, BJP MLA Mithilesh Kumar, injured in a road accident about a month ago, arrived on a stretcher to cast his vote. Of the total 4,796 MPs and MLAs that form the electoral college for choosing the next President of India, 4,754 cast their ballot (overall 99.1% turnout) at Parliament House and 30 at other poll locations across the state/UT legislative assemblies.
Of a total 771 MPs, 763 voted (98.9% turnout); while of the total 4,025 MLAs, 3,991 exercised their franchise (99.1% turnout). Sources said 8 MPs and 34 MLAs did not vote.
MPs who did not vote included BJP’s Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, who were absent due to health issues, AIMIM’s Imtiyaz Jaleel, Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, Congress’ Mohammed Sadiq, DMK’s T R Paarivendhar and BSP MPs Atul Singh, who is in jail, and Haji Fazlur Rehman.
There was 100% turnout in 11 states — Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu — and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
In all, 44 MPs were permitted to vote at state headquarters, nine MLAs at the Parliament House and 2 MLAs in other state headquarters.
The EC also allowed Covid-19 positive electors to vote in the last hour of polling or after all the non-Covid electors had cast their vote. Two Covid positive electors cast their vote in Tamil Nadu and one in Kerala.
Counting of all votes will be taken up at Parliament House on July 21 at 11am
The Election Commission said while two MLAs — Anant Kumar Singh and Mahendra Hari Dalvi — were not eligible to vote in view of their disqualification under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, as per court orders, there are five vacancies in Rajya Sabha and six in the state assemblies.
Polling began in Parliament House with PM Narendra Modi casting the first vote. Former PM Manmohan Singh (89), who arrived in a wheelchair, was also among the first few to vote. Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav was also ferried to the ballot box in a wheelchair, while Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and RK Singh came in PPE suits. In Bihar, BJP MLA Mithilesh Kumar, injured in a road accident about a month ago, arrived on a stretcher to cast his vote. Of the total 4,796 MPs and MLAs that form the electoral college for choosing the next President of India, 4,754 cast their ballot (overall 99.1% turnout) at Parliament House and 30 at other poll locations across the state/UT legislative assemblies.
Of a total 771 MPs, 763 voted (98.9% turnout); while of the total 4,025 MLAs, 3,991 exercised their franchise (99.1% turnout). Sources said 8 MPs and 34 MLAs did not vote.
MPs who did not vote included BJP’s Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, who were absent due to health issues, AIMIM’s Imtiyaz Jaleel, Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar, Congress’ Mohammed Sadiq, DMK’s T R Paarivendhar and BSP MPs Atul Singh, who is in jail, and Haji Fazlur Rehman.
There was 100% turnout in 11 states — Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu — and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
In all, 44 MPs were permitted to vote at state headquarters, nine MLAs at the Parliament House and 2 MLAs in other state headquarters.
The EC also allowed Covid-19 positive electors to vote in the last hour of polling or after all the non-Covid electors had cast their vote. Two Covid positive electors cast their vote in Tamil Nadu and one in Kerala.
Counting of all votes will be taken up at Parliament House on July 21 at 11am
