English
New Delhi: The nation on Thursday got its first tribal President as Droupadi Murmu crossed over 50 per cent of the total vote value after three rounds of counting. She defeated opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. Murmu (64) became the first tribal and the second woman to hold the highest office.
Giving details, PC Mody, Secretary General, Rajya Sabha said the states that are covered after the third round of counting include are Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Punjab. “In this round, total valid votes 1,333. Total value of valid votes is 1,65,664. Droupadi Murmu got 812 votes, Yashwant Sinha 521 votes,” he said.
“So, upto this round, the cumulative total is – total valid votes is 3219 with total value of 8,38,839 of which Droupadi Murmu gets 2161 votes of the value of 5,77,777. Yashwant Sinha get 1058 votes of the value of 2,61,062,” PC Mody added.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulates Droupadi Murmu on being elected as the President. “She has been active in working for welfare of villages, poor, deprived. Rising amidst them she has reached highest constitutional post today. This is the proof of power of India’s democracy,” he said in a tweet.
The counting of votes for presidential polls began in room number 63 in Parliament House at 11am today. The voting took place on July 18.
Only counting officers, officials deployed to assist the Rajya Sabha Secretary General, candidates and one authorised representative of each candidate, observers appointed by the Election Commission, and media persons with valid passes were allowed entry into the counting hall. Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody was the returning officer for the Presidential election.
728 electors including 719 MPs and nine MLAs of the 736 electors comprising 727 MPs and nine MLAs who were permitted by the Election Commission to vote at Parliament House, cast their votes. The total voters’ turnout at Parliament House was 98.91%.
The low-profile politician is believed to be deeply spiritual and a keen practitioner of the meditation techniques of the Brahma Kumaris, a movement she embraced after she lost her husband, two sons, mother and brother in the just six years between 2009-2015.
Murmu travelled throughout the country campaigning for the presidential election and was received warmly across state capitals.
Her first steps in politics were taken in Rairangpur where she was a elected as BJP councillor in the Rairangpur Notified Area Council in 1997 and rose to being a minister in Odisha’s BJD-BJP coalition government from 2000 to 2004. In 2015, she was appointed governor of Jharkhand and stayed in the post till 2021.
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