Droupadi Murmu crosses majority mark to win President poll

The NDA's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Thursday crossed the 50 per cent mark after the third round of counting to emerge victorious in the poll over her rival Yashwant Sinha. An official announcement on her win is expected after all votes are counted but she has already got 5,77,777 votes, which is more than the halfway mark of the total valid votes cast in the election on July 18.

Returning Officer PC Mody announced that Murmu has already received over 53 per cent of the total valid votes. Ballots from 10 states and Union territories are being still counted. In every round of counting so far, she has received more than two-third votes. Sources said 17 MPs from opposition parties have cross-voted in her support.

Ruling NDA's Droupadi Murmu and Opposition's Yashwant Sinha were pitted against each other in the contest, but votes were clearly stacked in favour of Murmu, who will now be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post in the country. Current President Ram Nath Kovind's tenure is ending on July 24 and the new president will take oath on July 25.

Polling for the presidential election was held between 10 am to 5 pm Monday at 31 locations including the Parliament house and 30 centres within state legislative assemblies. There are also reports of cross-voting in favour of Murmu in a number of states. There is no whip issued to members in the presidential poll. 

MPs of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, except nominated MPs, and all MLAs in legislative assembly in all states act as electors in the presidential poll. A total of 4,809 electors, comprising 776 MPs and 4,033 elected MLAs, are entitled to vote in the election, but nominated MPs and MLAs, and Members of Legislative Council are not.

Over 99 per cent of the total electors had cast their ballot in the poll that took place Monday, according to the Election Commission. Eight MPs, including BJP MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, were among those who missed casting their votes.

Actor-politician Deol missed voting since he is abroad for medical treatment, while Dhotre gave it a pass since he was in the ICU. Two MPs each from BJP and Shiv Sena, and one each from the BSP, Congress, SP, and AIMIM missed voting in the Monday polls. 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 polled only 3,67,314 votes.