The Hindu : 90 per cent turnout for Presidential poll

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002

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90 per cent turnout for Presidential poll

By Our Special Correspondent

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Leader of the Opposition and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, casting their vote in the Presidential election in Parliament House in New Delhi on Monday.

New Delhi July 15. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, his Cabinet colleagues and the leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, today cast their vote in the 12th presidential election in Parliament House, the main polling station. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, was the first to vote at 10 a.m. followed by Nilopat Basu (CPI-M).

At the end of the day, 90 per cent of the members of Parliament and the Members of the Legislative Assemblies had cast their vote to elect the 12th President in what is considered an uneven battle between the National Democratic Alliance candidate, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the Left-sponsored, Lakshmi Sahgal.

More than 65 per cent votes were cast by 1 p.m. at Parliament House amid bonhomie between the ruling party and the Opposition members.

The ballot boxes were sealed at 5.00 p.m. at the end of voting at Parliament House in the presence of Mr. Mahajan.

Thirteen members of Parliament, including Ram Jethmalani, L.M. Singhvi, Renuka Chowdhury and Rajiv Shulka, did not exercise their franchise. Two members of Parliament — Lakshman Chandra Seth (West Bengal) and Palden Tsering Gyamtso (Sikkim) — who were to vote outside Delhi were later allowed by the Election Commission to cast their vote at Parliament House.

Of a total of 776 electors here, 26 MPs voted in the respective State capitals. Five MLAs were allowed to vote at Parliament House. The MDMK leader, Vaiko, who is under custody, voted in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in Chennai at 2.30 p.m.

"I am feeling fantastic,'' quipped the National Democratic Alliance candidate, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to mediapersons as he visited Parliament House polling booth and shook hands with MPs lined up to vote. (Later one of the MPs from Assam, A.F. Golam Osmani, fell unconscious from the strain of queuing up and was rushed to hospital.) Dressed in a blue shirt and grey trousers, Dr. Kalam looked cheerful as he told mediapersons that he was "contesting an election and looking for victory''.

To inevitable queries about his hairstyle, Dr. Kalam said, "I do it every four months. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down.''

After casting his vote, the Prime Minister, accompanied by the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, shook hands with Dr. Kalam.

Capt. Sahgal did not make an appearance at the polling booth.

Later briefing mediapersons, the Returning Officer and Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha, R.C Tripathi, said the ballot boxes from States are expected to reach Parliament House latest by July 17.

Counting will begin on Thursday at 11 a.m. and results will be announced the same day.

A total of 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs comprise the electoral college for the presidential poll.

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