The Presidential election held on Monday was “peaceful and orderly”, with more than 99% members of the electoral college voting to elect the 15th President of the country. The contest is between the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) Droupadi Murmu and the Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. Though there was no whip, a few Opposition members claimed to have voted for Ms. Murmu in various States.
Talking to reporters after the polling, Returning Officer and Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha P.C. Mody said the poll was conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner in all the designated voting centres all over the country. He said out of the 736 electors comprising 727 MPs and nine MLAs who were registered to vote in Parliament House, eight MPs did not exercise their right to vote. “The total electoral turnout was 99.18%,” Mr. Mody said.
Sealed ballot boxes will reach Delhi from Monday evening itself. Parliament security service is coordinating with the Delhi Police, Airport authorities and other security forces to ensure smooth transition of the ballot boxes to Parliament from various centres. The counting will take place at Room No. 63 of the Parliament House on Thursday from 11 a.m.
The Election Commission (EC) said in a statement that the polling concluded successfully in a free, fair and transparent manner at the Parliament House and in each of the 30 places of poll in State Legislative Assemblies, including the Legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry. The polling took place at 31 locations between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. A total of 4,796 electors were eligible to vote, as two members (Anant Kumar Singh and Mahendra Hari Dalvi) were not eligible due to disqualification under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and five Rajya Sabha seats and six State Assembly seats were vacant, the EC said.
‘100% voting’
“As per reports being received, out of a total of 771 Members of Parliament entitled to vote (5 vacant) and similarly out of total 4,025 Members of the Legislative Assemblies entitled to vote (6 vacant and 2 disqualified), over 99% cast their votes. However, 100% voting by MLAs was reported from Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu,” the EC said.
The EC said two COVID-positive electors cast their votes at the Tamil Nadu Assembly and one COVID-positive MP cast his ballot at Thiruvananthapuram. The EC said arrangements had been made to bring back the 30 ballot boxes from the States and the Union Territories by Tuesday, as counting was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
BJP MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, BSP leader Atul Singh, Shiv Sena leaders Gajanan Kirtikar and Hemant Godse and AIMIM leader Imtiyaz Jaleel are among the MPs who could not vote due to various reasons. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, senior Opposition leaders such as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge voted in Parliament. Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and R.K. Singh voted wearing PPE suits. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and SP leader Mulayam Singh, who were not keeping well, came in wheelchairs to vote.
‘Voted as per conscience’
Lone NCP MLA in Gujarat Kandhal Jadeja voted in favour of the NDA candidate Ms. Murmu. After casting his ballot, Mr. Jadeja, a powerful legislator from the Saurashtra region, told media persons that he had voted for the BJP candidate as per his “conscience.”
An Odisha Congress MLA also broke rank and voted for Ms. Murmu. Barabati-Cuttack Constituency MLA Mohammed Moquim voted for Ms. Murmu saying he respected the sentiment of 4.5 crore Odias as the daughter of soil was going to occupy the highest constitutional position of the country. “Before Ms. Murmu being an NDA candidate, she is Odia first. We have been elected by Odias. Every person from Odisha wanted to see her at the top constitutional post. I just respected that sentiment,” Mr. Moquim said.
“There is no harm in voting for a tribal woman candidate who belongs to Odisha. Moreover, my party has not issued any whip regarding voting in the Presidential election. I am ready to reply to any explanation to be sought from me,” he said. “The Central leadership had communicated State leaders about voting in Presidential election. But, I was not present in Congress Legislature Party meeting and nobody asked me whom I should vote to,” said the Congress MLA.
NCP MLA in Jharkhand Kamlesh Singh too pledged support to Ms. Murmu. Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was expelled from the party after having cross-voted in last month’s Rajya Sabha polls, said he had voted according to his conscience in the Presidential poll too.
Mr. Sinha, meanwhile, said his fight was against the government agencies too. “I have repeatedly said this election is very important as it will decide the direction as to whether democracy will remain in India or will slowly end. The indications that we are getting is that we are moving towards its end,” Mr. Sinha said.
