UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee is all set to be elected the 13th President of the country. Votes polled in the election held on Thursday will be counted on Sunday. Barring a bizarre incident involving Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who first voted by mistake for NDA-backed candidate P.A. Sangma and later rectified it, it was a listless election.
Right from the day the UPA declared the former Finance Minister as its presidential choice, the election was a one-sided affair. Given the strength of the parties in the presidential electoral college which have extended their support to Mr. Mukherjee, there has never been any doubt about his victory.
There were elements of drama in the run-up to the election with differences among all the three political formations on the strategy. Within the UPA, the Trinamool Congress kept the suspense till the last minute by refusing to spell out whether or not it would vote for Mr. Mukherjee.
The NDA was divided with the Janata Dal (United) and the Shiv Sena throwing their weight behind Mr. Mukherjee. Among the Left parties, while the CPI(M) and the Forward Bloc decided to back Mr. Mukherjee, the CPI and the RSP decided to abstain.
The electoral college consists of 4,120 MLAs and 776 MPs with a total vote value of 10.98 lakh.
With the support of the SP (66,688 vote value), the BSP (45,473), the JD(U) (40,737), the Shiv Sena (18,495), the JD(S) (6,138) and the CPI(M) and the Forward Bloc (around 41,000), Mr. Mukherjee can expect a vote share of around 7.5 lakh. Mr. Sangma, who was sponsored by the AIADMK and the BJD and backed by several NDA constituents, is expected to get around 3.15 lakh vote value.
The headline for this article has been changed to reflect the fact that Mr Pranab Mukherjee is likely to be the 13th person to be sworn in as President.
