Presidential polls: NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu has a clear edge over Opposition's Yashwant Sinha.
Elections to choose the next President were held today amid claims of cross-voting to favour Droupadi Murmu.The NDA candidate appeared to be ahead of Opposition's Yashwant Sinha even before the polls, with many parties declaring support for her.
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Through the day, 728 of the 736 electors permitted to vote in the Parliament House, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former PM Manmohan Singh, voted.
Eight MPs chose to abstain. They include two MPs each from the BJP and Shiv Sena, and one each from the Congress, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM.
Several MLAs, including one from the Congress and two from Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party claimed on record that they have voted for the NDA candidate. No whip can be issued for Presidential elections ad lawmakers are allowed to vote "according to their conscience".
Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who cross-voted in last month's Rajya Sabha polls, said he has voted according to his conscience in the Presidential election too.
In Gujarat, NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja said he voted for Droupadi Murmu. In Odisha, a Congress MLA also claimed to have voted for Ms Murmu, flouting his party's choice.
Ms Murmu, 64, was a strong contender for the country's highest office before the 2017 presidential elections before Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, was named as the government's choice.
The NDA choice of Ms Murmu -- a tribal woman from Odisha and a former Jharkhand Governor -- is seen as a calculated move, drawing the support not only of Jharkhand's ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, but also Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, seen as a fence-sitter.
Ms Murmu has also been assured of support by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who lately is seldom on the same page as ally BJP. Both factions of the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray also pledged support for her.
While the Shinde faction, which allied with the BJP, was supporting the NDA candidate, Team Uddhav Thackeray, which was supporting Yashwant Sinha, decided to switch after being urged by its 16 MPs.
The counting of votes will be held on July 21 and the new President will take oath on July 25, under the schedule announced by the Election Commission.
