Murmu vs Sinha: Voting begins to elect the next President of India

• PM Modi urged all the MPs to follow parliamentary procedures saying the session is important as the nation is going to elect a new President and Vice-President.
• The counting of votes will be done on July 21 and the winner will take an oath on July 25.
• The elections are expected to be in favour of Murmu as she may be able to garner 60% of the votes.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday said he is confident that NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu will win the elections with a huge margin.

"Murmu is an inspirational personality and I am sure that she will be winning the elections with a huge margin as she will be getting more votes than expected, an official statement quoting Khattar said.

The Chief Minister said this while interacting with the media after casting his vote for the post of President in the Assembly here.

Till 12.30 pm, 48 votes were cast in the Assembly.

"The NDA and the UPA candidates have their own voting calculation, I am completely sure that NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu will win the election by a huge margin and will take oath on July 25," said Khattar.

He said Murmu would set an example and be a source of great inspiration among other women. "Murmu is going to become the second woman President of India, while she will be the first woman from the tribal society to be elected to the post of President."

Responding to a question, the Chief Minister said whether it's about selecting a presidential or vice-presidential candidate, the NDA has always preferred choosing good and educated candidates.

"The NDA candidate for the post of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar hails from Rajasthan and has been a lawyer by profession. The NDA has certainly given a good message by fielding him for the post of the Vice-President," added Khattar.

In the 90-member assembly, 89 MLAs cast their vote in the Assembly complex, while Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had cross-voted in last month's Rajya Sabha polls, cast his vote in the Parliament House.

In the Haryana Assembly, the vote value of each of the MLA is 112, which pegs the cumulative value at 10,080.
Ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged all the MPs to follow parliamentary procedures saying the session is important as the nation is going to elect a new President and Vice-President.

"Elections for the office of President and Vice-President are being held in this session. Voting (for the Presidential election) is taking place today. During this session, the new President and Vice-President will begin guiding the nation," he said.

Prime Minister Modi said that this is the period of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' and special significance of the Independence day for the coming 25 years - when the nation would celebrate the hundred year of independence.

The government has listed 32 bills to be passed in this session and in which 24 are new. The opposition has objected to it citing time constraint.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the bills will not be passed in a hurry and adequate time will be given for debate.

The Congress, this morning, moved adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on LPG price hike and suspension of business notice in Rajya Sabha on Agnipath scheme.

A total of 24 new bills will be introduced in the upcoming monsoon session, including Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2022.

"The Bill seeks to replace the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867 by decriminalisation of the existing Act, keeping the procedures of the extant Act simple from the view point of medium/small publishers and uphold the values of Press Freedom".

It may see stiff opposition as it is said that this bill is being brought to control the small publishers and digital media. The Opposition has already alleged that the government is trying to stifle the voice of dissent in the country.

Another important bill is Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to provide a regulatory framework for Carbon Trading in India, to encourage penetration of renewables in energy mix, and effective implementation and enforcement of the Energy Conservation Act.

The polling for the next president began at 10 a.m on July 18, at the Parliament House and the state legislative assemblies. And around 4,800 member of parliament and legislative assemblies have started casting their votes to elect the 15th President of India.

PM Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, UP CM Yogi Adityanath have already casted their votes. As many as 162 out of 175 MLAs in Andhra Pradesh exercised their franchise in the Presidential election till 1.30 pm here on Monday.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was the first to cast his vote when voting began at 10 am.Speaker Tammineni Sitarama, ministers and MLAs followed the Chief Minister in exercising their franchise.

Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu led his Telugu Desam Party legislators in voting at 12 noon in the polling booth in the Assembly Committee Hall.Two Telugu Desam MLAs, Nandamuri Balakrishna and Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, were among the notable absentees as they were said to be on a foreign visit.

Andhra Pradesh is probably the only state where the ruling and the opposition parties are supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu.This is also the first time that the rival parties are on one side in a presidential election.The YSRC has 31 MPs (nine in Rajya Sabha and 22 in Lok Sabha) and 151 MLAs in the state Assembly.

The TDP has one member in Rajya Sabha, three members in Lok Sabha besides 23 MLAs (including three rebels).The BJP has one MP in Rajya Sabha. Though technically the Jana Sena has one MLA, he has been sailing with the YSRC since his election in 2019. The Congress has no presence in AP.As such, all votes from AP are in favour of Murmu.

In the 2017 presidential election, the Congress had four Rajya Sabha members who supported the then opposition candidate. As the TDP was then part of the NDA, it voted for the latter's nominee, along with the alliance partner BJP. The YSRC, then in opposition, also voted for the NDA candidate.

However, the counting of votes will be done on July 21 and the winner will take an oath on July 25. BJP-elected Droupadi Murmu is in a contest against former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha in the upcoming polls.

The elections are expected to be in favour of Murmu as she may be able to garner 60% of the votes with the support of BJD, YSRCP, BSP, AIADMK, TDP, JD(S), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena and JMM, National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

If Murmu wins the election, she may not only become the first tribal woman president of India but also the second woman president in the country’s history after Pratibha Patil who served as president from 2007-2012.

The 64-year-old Murmu hails from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district and has been a BJP legislator twice in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet. She has experience in handling diverse ministries like transport, commerce, fisheries and animal husbandry in the Odisha government.

Murmu started her political career as a councilor and later became the vice-chairperson of the Rairangpur National Advisory Council or NAC. In 2013, she became a national executive member of the party's Scheduled Tribe Morcha in Odisha.

In 2007, the Odisha Legislative Assembly honoured her with its Best MLA of the year award.

Born into a tribal family she had struggled with poverty in one of the state’s most underdeveloped districts. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Arts from Ramadevi Women’s college in Bhubaneswar.

(With inputs from IANS)

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