Patna, July 18: Voting for Presidential polls began at 10 AM which would continue till 5 PM in Bihar Assembly premises where a total of 242 MLAs are scheduled to exercise their franchise to elect a new President while Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from the state are expected to cast their votes in New Delhi as Monsoon session of the parliament began on Monday.
NDA has fielded Draupadi Murmu, a tribal woman as its candidate for the Presidential election while Opposition parties have fielded Yashwant Sinha as their common candidate.
Assembly Secretariat sources said here that voting for the Presidential election had begun amid tight security preparedness. Voting arrangements have been made in the conference hall of the Assembly, sources added.
In Bihar Assembly, the total strength of MLAs is 243 but only 242 MLAs can exercise their franchise for Presidential polls as the membership of RJD MLA Anant Singh has been terminated following his conviction in Arms Act recently.
Similarly, there are 40 Lok Sabha MPs and 16 Rajya Sabha MPs from Bihar but they are expected to exercise their franchise in New Delhi as the Monsoon session of the parliament has begun on Monday.
According to the latest tally in Assembly, the ruling NDA has a strength of 127 MLAs while the opposition has a strength of 114. One is an independent MLA in the House. The value vote of one MLA in Bihar is 173 while the value vote of an MP in the state is 700.
Ruling NDA comprises 77 MLAs of BJP, 45 of JD(U), 4 of HAM and one Independent is also supporting the NDA. Similarly, the opposition has the strength of 114 comprising 79 of RJD, 19 of Congress, 12 of CPI(ML), and 2 each of CPI and CPI (M). One AIMIM MLA is neither in NDA nor in the opposition alliance in Assembly.
Nearly, 4800 elected MPs and MLAs are expected to vote across the country to elect the 15th President of India. NDA Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu has a clear edge as she is all set to get over 60 per cent of value votes with several parties outside NDA including JMM, BJD, SAD and Shiva Sena have also announced their support to her candidature.
Murmu, a native of Odisha, has served as Governor of Jharkhand and she has also been Minister in Odisha government. Sinha who had served as Minister in the erstwhile Vajpayee government had resigned from BJP and joined TMC last year. He, had, however, resigned from TMC to contest the Presidential election as the common candidate of opposition parties.
The counting of votes would be taken up on July 21. The tenure of the incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind will end on July 24. The new President will take oath on July 25.
