BJP has surprised everyone by choosing former Jharkhand governor and tribal leader Draupadi Murmu.
New Delhi:
NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu’s vote share with BJD’s support has now crossed 50 per cent, virtually paving the way for her election as the first tribal president and also the youngest.
Backed by Naveen Patnaik’s party, the NDA candidate has around 52 per cent (about 5,67,000 votes) out of a total of 10,86,431 votes of all voters.
This includes 3,08,000 votes of MPs from the BJP and its allies. Among the voters, the BJD has around 32,000 votes, which is about 2.9 per cent of the total.
In Odisha, the ruling party has 114 MLAs in the 147-member house while the BJP has 22. It has 12 MPs in the Lok Sabha and nine in the Rajya Sabha.
The NDA candidate is likely to get the support of some regional parties, including AIADMK and YSRCP, for their candidate in the presidential election.
The ruling BJP has a strength of 92 in the crucial upper house of Parliament following the results of the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections. It has a total of 301 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
The BJP’s sympathetic victories in four assembly elections, including the all-important Uttar Pradesh, where each MLA’s vote is worth more than any other state, has only added to its overall gains.
Although the BJP and its allies in the NDA have fewer MLAs than in the 2017 presidential elections, their number of MPs has increased since then.
The BJP surprised former Jharkhand governor and tribal leader Draupadi Murmu by replacing Ram Nath Kovind, a leader of the Dalit community, for the country’s top constitutional post.
According to the latest official figures, the BJP has 393 MPs on its own, excluding four nominated Rajya Sabha members who cannot vote, out of the current strength of 776 members from both houses, giving it a clear majority.
The BJP’s numerical advantage in Parliament, which has nearly half the vote in the electoral college, which includes all elected legislators, is further increased when the strength of its allies such as the Janata Dal (United), which has a total of 21 MPs, is the national Lok Sabha. Janshakti Party, Apna Dal and many states of North Eastern states have been added.
While both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have 776 MPs, each with 700 votes, the states have 4,033 MLAs with varying votes who will also elect Ram Nath Kovind’s successor.
Though the final list of voters will be notified after the bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats and the Rajya Sabha elections to 16 seats, the NDA has 440 MPs in favor, while the opposition UPA has around 180 MPs, apart from the Trinamool Congress with 36 MPs. Those who generally support the opposition candidate.
Among the states, BJP has 56,784 votes from Uttar Pradesh where it has 273 MLAs. Each MLA has maximum 208 votes in Uttar Pradesh. NDA will get its second highest number of votes in the states of Bihar where, with 127 MLAs, it will get 21,971 votes as each MLA has 173 votes, followed by Maharashtra with 18,375 votes. There are 105 MLAs and each has 175 votes.
With 131 MLAs, the NDA will get 17,161 votes from Madhya Pradesh, 16,464 votes from 112 MLAs from Gujarat and 15,982 from its 122 MLAs in Karnataka.
The UPA, on the other hand, has over 1,50,000 votes from its MPs and will get almost the same number of votes from its MLAs in the states.
In the past too, opposition candidates have been getting a little over three lakh votes in the last elections for the highest office in the country.
Due to absence of Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, the value of vote of an MP has come down from 708 to 700 in this year’s presidential election.
The value of an MP’s vote in the presidential election is based on the number of members elected in the Legislative Assemblies of the States and Union Territories, including Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Election Commission on Thursday announced that the election of Kovind’s successor would be held on July 18.
Nominations can be filed till June 29 and the results of the elections will be out on July 21.
If elected, Murmu, a former governor of Jharkhand, will be the first president to be born after independence.
Hours after former Union minister Yashwant Sinha was declared joint candidate by several opposition parties including Congress, TMC and NCP, the candidature of the 64-year-old tribal leader from Odisha was announced by BJP chief JP Nadda on Tuesday night. ,
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)