Presidential polls: as it happened

NDA nominee is former Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind and the Opposition choice is former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

July 17, 2017 07:17 am | Updated 10:43 pm IST

Sushma Swaraj with L.K Advani and Farooq Abdullah,after casting votes for Presidential Election

Sushma Swaraj with L.K Advani and Farooq Abdullah,after casting votes for Presidential Election

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to vote for electing the next President of India, in New Delhi on Monday. Voting began at 10 am and ended at 5 pm. Polling stations were set up in the Parliament House and State Assemblies, officials said. 

The electorate, comprising Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members and members of Assemblies, is tilted in favour of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but the Opposition is working to seek support of some regional parties in favour of its candidate.

The NDA nominee is former Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind and a combination of 14 Opposition parties have declared former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as their presidential candidate.

The Election Commission had appointed 33 observers to oversee the conduct of the election. While two observers were present in the Parliament House, one each was deployed in the respective Assemblies.

The result will be declared on July 20.  A total of 4,896 voters — 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs — were eligible to cast their ballot. MLCs are not part of the electoral college.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who are yet to resign from the Lok Sabha, voted in the respective Assemblies.

 

Live updates:

5:00 pm: The NCP rubbishes “rumours” that some of its MLAs and MPs may indulge in cross-voting in the election and asserts that the party stands firmly with Ms. Kumar.  “The rumours that NCP MPs and MLAs are voting for the NDA presidential candidate are false. We are voting for our candidate Meira Kumar,” NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik says. The party was with Ms. Kumar throughout her candidature process and during the filing of her nomination papers. “All rumours are baseless and should be ignored,” he says.

4.00 pm: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah voices the hope that parties facing the BJP in the States will revisit their decision to vote for Mr. Kovind “considering the situation” in the country. “So there is hope that those parties, which have till now opposed the BJP and will be the target of the party in the coming State elections, might change their decision [to support Mr. Kovind] at the last moment considering the situation in the country,” Mr. Abdullah tells reporters after casting his vote in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

“As far as the numbers are concerned, it seems the NDA has an advantage in the electoral college, but in a secret ballot you cannot show your vote to anyone,” he points out.

3.30 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says, "We voted for Meira Kumar to register our protest against 'present atrocities' in the country. All Opposition parties must unite together. This is the best time. We will play an aggressive role in Parliament. We are ready to go to jail but will not bow our heads."

3:00 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejirwal says MLAs should vote according to their conscience. He was responding to an Opposition BJP MLA's claim earlier in the day that “10-12 legislators” of the ruling AAP had voted for Mr. Kovind. “We are supporting Meira Kumar. All should vote following their conscience,” says Mr. Kejriwal, who cast his vote in the Delhi Assembly.

2:15 pm: Ms. Kumar urges the members of the electoral college to heed their “voice of conscience” and vote for an ideology that binds India. “Today is a very important day. Today, the collegium will take a decision and you all know I am a candidate in this contest to fight the battle of ideology,” she says. The ideology of “social justice, inclusiveness, secularism, transparency, freedom of expression and press, poverty alleviation and total destruction of caste system” binds India together. It is very important that “we protect and preserve it”, the former Lok Sabha speaker says.

1:50 pm: In Goa , Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar cast his vote in the first one hour at the Secretariat.  Goa Forward Party’s Jayesh Salgaoncar and Vinod Palyekar, Congress’ Philip Neri Rodrigues, Ravi Naik, Digambar Kamat and Tony Fernandes, and BJP’s Pramod Sawant and Pravin Zantye were among the early voters. The Goa Assembly has 40 members. However, 38 MLAs were eligible to vote as Vishwajit Rane (Congress) and Siddharth Kuncolienkar (BJP) have resigned.

1:15 pm: In West Bengal , the Darjeeling unrest finds an echo during voting. A heated exchange occurs between Trinamool MLA Paresh Pal and GJM MLAs. Mr. Pal takes a swipe at three GJM MLAs, saying they have set the hills on fire. Mr. Pal also targets BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh alleging that he is also behind the unrest. This triggers a war of words between the MLAs.

12:45 pm: As many as 161 members of a total of 225 exercise their franchise in Karnataka . All the 48 members of the BJP and its allied cast their votes by 11.45 am itself. BJP MLA C. T. Ravi was the first to vote. Five rebel MLAs of the JD(S) come to exercise their franchise along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

12:30 pm: Jailed NCP MLAs Chhagan Bhujbal and Ramesh Kadam exercise their franchise.Mr. Bhujbal is lodged in the Arthur Road jail in connection with a money laundering case. Mr. Kadam is an undertrial in the Byculla jail in connection with an embezzlement case.

12:15 pm: Voting starts at the Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who represents the Nagpur constituency, being one among the early voters. Former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar arrives to cast his vote.

11:55 am: Sachin Tendulkar, Subramanian Swamy, Mary Kom. All of them cannot vote in this election. Do you know why? Because they are nominated members. The two nominated Anglo Indian members of the Lok Sabha and 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are ineligible to vote.

11:50 am: West Bengal is another State that will vote in favour of Ms. Kumar. Of the 294 MLAs in the Assembly, 288 are supporting Ms. Kumar. Three MLAs from the BJP and three from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, an ally of the BJP, will vote for Mr. Kovind, reports Shiv Sahay Singh .

11:40 am: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Minister Uma Bharti were among those who cast their votes in Lucknow. Voting began at 10 am at the Tilak Hall.

“This is matter of pride for the people of Uttar Pradesh, the the son of the State is going to become the President”, says Mr. Adityanath.

Uttar Pradesh MLAs wait for their turn to cast the vote at Tilk Hall in Lucknow on Monday.

Uttar Pradesh MLAs wait for their turn to cast the vote at Tilk Hall in Lucknow on Monday.

 

11:30 am: Former Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel was among the first to vote at the State Secretariat. As the Assembly complex is undergoing renovation, voting is taking place at Swarnim Sankul-2 complex inside the Secretariat.

11:20 am: Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanaswamy casts his vote.

11:05 am: As many as 120 legislators have cast their votes in Chennai as of 11 am. All the factions of the AIADMK have declared their support for Mr. Kovind. The DMK and Congress are backing Ms. Kumar.

DMK chief Karunanidhi, probably for the first time, is not voting in this election due to his ill health.

11:00 am The value of the vote of each legislator varies based on the population of the State he/she belongs to.

Here is the calculation:

Value of Vote of an MLA of (for example) Tamil Nadu in the 2012 presidential poll:

Total population (1971 Census) = 411,99,168

Total number of elected members of the Assembly = 234

Value of votes of each MLA = 41199168/ (234 X 1000) = 176

Value of Votes of an MP in the 2012 election:

Total value of votes of the elected MLAs of all States = 5,49,474

Total number of elected MPs = 543 (Lok Sabha) + 233 (Rajya Sabha) = 776

Value of vote for each MP = 5,49,474/776 = 708.

 

10:40 am: Did you notice the pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu casting their votes? Take a closer look at the ballot papers. They are of different colours. There is a reason behind it.

The MPs will use a green ballot, while MLAs use pink ones. This is because the value of the vote of an MP and that of an MLA varies. Thus the colour makes counting of votes easier for the polling personnel.

10:30 am A scene from the Parliament House.

10:30 am: Mr. Chandrababu Naidu was the first to cast the vote from Andhra Pradesh. He exercised his franchise in the Assembly in the new capital city of Amaravati.

Presidential election

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu casting his vote at Presidential election from Amravati.

After the Chief Minister, it was Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao's turn to cast his vote.

10:20 am: A total of 235 legislators will cast their votes in Chennai. Besides the 233 Tamil Nadu MLAs, an MLA from Kerala, and Union Minister Pon. Radhakrishnan have been allowed to vote in Chennai on prior permission from the Election Commission, reports Dennis Jesudasan .

10:10 am: Voting gets begins at Parliament. Mr. Modi, BJP president and Naranpura MLA Amit Shah are among early voters.  Mr. Shah is among five MLAs who got permission to vote on the Parliament premises instead of their Assembly.

10:00 am: And the voting to choose India's President has begun. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami was the first person to cast his vote from Assembly premises at Fort St. George in Chennai.

9:30 am While the BJP has managed to ramp up support of as many as 40 parties for its presidential nominee, the scene in Kerala is different. Mr. Kovind is likely to get only one vote — that of BJP MLA O. Rajagopal. Both the LDF and UDF are supporting Ms. Kumar.

9:00 am Does it make a difference if an MLA is from Sikkim or Uttar Pradesh? In Presidential election, yes.

The value of an MLA’s vote depends on the population of the state he or she represents. But the value of the vote of an MP is fixed at 708.

8:30 am Here's what you need to know about the two presidential candidates

 

7:35 am In a rare case, the Election Commission has disqualified a minister from voting. Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra cannot vote in this election since the EC had disqualified him for three years over paid news charges, holding him guilty of not giving a true account of expenses incurred in the 2008 Assembly polls.

07:25 am While battle lines appear to have been clearly drawn since almost all parties made it clear to whom it would extend its support, cross-voting is likely to affect the margin of victory.

The Samajwadi Party, for instance, appears split . While Akhilesh Yadav has backed Ms. Kumar, his father backs Mr. Kovind. Whom will the party legislators support? We have to wait and watch.

07:20 am In Telangana , the TRS conducted a mock voting session yesterday to train its legislators the right way to vote.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekara Rao warned party MLAs that their votes would be invalidated if they marked the ballots wrongly. This would bring a bad name not only to the party but also to the State in its infancy.

07:15 am For Puducherry , this election is much more than electing the President. The ruling Congress-DMK combine will be keenly tracking the signs of solidarity or lack thereof in the Opposition ranks as voting by secret ballot begins at 10 a.m. on Monday, says M. Dinesh Varma.

Though the Congress-DMK regime enjoys a simple majority in the 30-member House (with 17 MLAs, including two DMK legislators), some hectic backroom manoeuvres during the recent visit of BJP national president Amit Shah has set off speculation about a possible disruption in the political calculus in the near future, he writes.

07:12 am The States are also gearing up for voting. The Election Commission has taken every step to ensure free and fair election, it is not even allowing legislators to carry their own pen!

An Election Commission display board informing electors about the use of a special pen to mark ballot papers in the presidential election, at the voting centre in Tamil Nadu Secretariat, Chennai on July 15, 2017.

An Election Commission display board informing electors about the use of a special pen to mark ballot papers in the presidential election, at the voting centre in Tamil Nadu Secretariat, Chennai on July 15, 2017.

 

07:10 am While chances of Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA’s candidate for President, winning the polls are brighter than former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, her name will appear first on the ballot.

The ballot paper for MPs will be green in colour while MLAs will be given pink coloured ballot papers. A pen with violet coloured ink will be provided to voters to mark their preference

07:05 am While the voting for electing the next President of India will take place today, the winner will be sworn in to office by the Chief Justice of India, in a time honoured ritual in the Central Hall of Parliament on July 25.

In between these fixed points of rituals of state, is a world of preparation, protocol and politics.

07:00 am The voting in Parliament House in New Delhi will take place in room number 62, and coincidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will all be casting their votes from table number 6 in this room.

Simultaneously the voting will begin in all States at 10 am. While the MLAs will vote in their respective legislative assemblies, the MPs after getting prior approval from the Election Commission have a choice of exercising their franchise either in the Parliament premises or at their home State.

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