Puducherry, July 18: The polling for the Presidential election ended in Puducherry on Monday.
All the 30 MLAs in the assembly and Puducherry Lok Sabha member V Vaithilingam have exercised their franchise. BJP Rajya Sabha member S Selvaganapathy cast his vote in Delhi.
Though the polling process was completed in the Assembly Conference Hall, set up as a polling station, it will be kept open till 5 PM.
The ballot box thereafter will be sealed, official sources said.
Since, the time today was not auspicious from 1030 hours to 1200 PM, the legislators failed to turn up till 1200 PM even though, the polling booth was opened at 10 AM itself.
Leader of the opposition R Siva was the first DMK MLA to cast his vote. Later the remaining five party legislators, two members from Congress and Vaithilingam exercised their franchise for Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
The ruling 16 N R Congress-BJP legislators besides six independents came to the assembly after 1200 PM and voted for NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu.
Of the six independent members–Angalan, Sivasankar and Kollappally Sreenivasa Ashok – had already extended support to the NDA Candidate.
The remaining three independents — Prakash Kumar P R Siva and Nehru also exercised their franchise in favour of the NDA candidate.
