The voting process for India’s next President, a tough contest between the National Democratic Alliance’s Droupadi Murmu and Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha, concluded on Monday, 18 July, with ballots being cast by MPs in the Parliament House in Delhi and by MLAs and chief ministers in state assemblies across the country.
Indian media reports that 99.18% of MPs cast their vote on Monday.
736 electors, including 727 members of Parliament and nine legislative assembly members were permitted by the Election Commission to vote, out of which 730 cast their votes,” according to the outlets.
The counting of votes will take place on July 21.
The President in India is elected by an electoral college consisting of MPs of both Houses of Parliament and MLAs of the states and Delhi and Puducherry. Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of state Legislative Councils, are not part of the electoral college.
India’s president holds a role as ceremonial head of the country, a figurehead with no real powers, who acts mostly on the advice of the government.
Droupadi Murmu, 64, is a Santhal, a marginal tribal community, and is from Mayurbhanj in eastern Odisha state. She has spent nearly two decades in politics and social services and was appointed as the first tribal governor of Jharkhand state in 2015.
Yashwant Sinha, 84, is a bureaucrat-turned-politician who previously served as the external affairs and finance minister of India.
Ms Murmu has garnered larger support from BJP’s allies and is poised to sweep the polls. If elected, she would be the first tribal member and the second woman to hold the presidency.
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