Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra has been disqualified from voting in Monday’s presidential poll, an Election Commission of India (ECI) official said on Monday.
The official said the ballot paper does have the name of Mishra but it is followed by the word “disqualified.”
On June 24, the EC had disqualified Mishra for three years over paid news charges, holding him guilty of not giving a true account of expenses incurred in the 2008 Assembly polls.
According to the official, the MP Assembly has 230 members, but with the demise of Congress MLA from Chitrakoot seat Prem Singh and Mishra being disqualified, 228 MLAs will cast their votes.
Ballot papers, ballot boxes and special pens have reached Bhopal for the poll which will be held between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., he added.
The electorate will cast their votes with special pens, which would be given to them, said the official.
Following the ink controversy in the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana last year, the EC has decided to use special pens for the electors to mark their votes in the presidential and vice presidential polls.
Specially serial-numbered pens with violet ink have been supplied by the EC to ensure that only the writing instrument issued by it is used by voters to mark their votes on July 17.
