New Delhi: The counting of votes for the Presidential election will be held today. According to official sources,the counting will begin at 1100 hrs. The Secretary General of Lok Sabha, Anoop Mishra, who is the Returning Officer for Presidential polls, has said that the votes will be counted on four separate tables and there would be eight rounds of counting.
Sources also said, first, the ballot box of Parliament House will be opened, and then, the ballot papers received from states will be counted in alphabetical order. Out of 771 Members of Parliament of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, 768 cast their votes while of 4100 state legislators, 4075 excercised their right to elect country's first citizen. As many as 714 MPs voted in Parliament premises while the rest voted in respective state Assembly premises.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to cast his vote in Parliament premises. The term of incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee, a veteran Parliamentarian, comes to an end on July 24. Parliament has organised a farewell function for Mr Mukherjee on July 23, Sunday, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has announced in the House earlier this week. A booklet signed by all Members of Parliament will be handed over to Mr Mukherjee on the occasion.
This year's presidential election had generated much excitement as NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar Governor, was pitted against united opposition nominee and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. There have been also talks about "cross voting" in this year's election. Significantly, the turnout in voting was one of the largest - about 99 per cent. Also notably, a number of MPs this year voted in their respective state capitals.
As many as 42 MPs from West Bengal voted in the premises of West Bengal Assembly in Kolkata. The state's ruling party Trinamool Congress has asserted that there would not be any cross voting from their party camp. The election for Vice President's post will be held on August 5. While BJP-led NDA dispensation has fielded senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, the former West Bengal Governor and a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi - Gopalkrishna Gandhi is the candidate on behalf of the opposition parties. (UNI)
