He was hospitalised at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in October 2021 after he reported feeling weak after having a fever. During the height of the second coronavirus pandemic last year, the former PM contracted COVID-19.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of the Samajwadi Party, also showed up in wheelchairs to cast their votes. Yadav, 82, has been ill for a while and has spent the past year in and out of the hospital due to a variety of ailments.
The leader of the opposition in the Odisha Assembly and a member of the BJP, Pradipta Kumar Naik, arrived in a wheelchair and an oxygen cylinder directly from the hospital. For post-Covid problems, he was admitted to a private hospital in this area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President JP Nadda were among the first to cast their ballots in the presidential election, which pits NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu against joint Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha, at 10 am. At 5 o'clock, the voting would come to an end.
On July 18 morning, voting began for the presidential election, in which the NDA's Droupadi Murmu is running against the united opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. The presidential election was also being held in a number of state assemblies, and early voters there included Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, M. K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, and Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi.
Members of Legislative Councils and about 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs are eligible to vote in the election, while nominated MPs and MLAs are not. In addition to the first-floor room 63 of Parliament House, which has been transformed into a polling site, voting is also happening concurrently at a number of state assemblies.
As of 1 p.m., 616 MPs and 9 MLAs had cast their votes, resulting in an 83 percent turnout. On July 21, there will be a vote count.
(With agency inputs)
