Who Will be The 15th President of India? Counting of Votes to Begin at 11 AM Today

Ruling NDA's Draupadi Murmu, if elected, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post in the country.

Presidential Election 2022: Who will be the next President of India? The counting of votes to elect India’s 15th President will begin on Thursday at Parliament House at 11 AM. The voting took place on July 18 and was completed in a peaceful manner. The voting concluded at 5 PM at the Parliament House and at designated places in the capitals of all states besides the UTs of Puducherry and Delhi on Monday.

Of the 736 electors comprising 727 MPs and nine MLAs who were permitted by the Election Commission to vote at Parliament House, 728 electors cast their vote. This includes 719 MPs and nine MLAs. The total turnout at Parliament House was 98.91 per cent.

Close contest between Draupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha

This time, the contest is between BJP-led NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu and opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. The NDA candidate is seen to have a clear edge in the contest.

Ruling NDA’s Draupadi Murmu, if elected, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post in the country.

Current President Ram Nath Kovind’s tenure is ending on July 24 and the new president will take oath on July 25. Ram Nath Kovind had become the President after polling 7,02,044 votes out of a total of 10,69,358 votes, while his rival Meira Kumar polled only 3,67,314 votes.

Preparations in place for counting of votes

With ballot boxes from all states having reached the Parliament House, poll officials are ready for the counting in room number 63, the strongroom of Parliament where the boxes are guarded behind round the clock security.

Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody, who is the Chief Returning Officer for the poll, will oversee the counting Thursday, the result of which is likely to be declared by the evening.

PC Mody will first brief on the poll trends after all votes of MPs have been counted, and then again after votes of 10 states in alphabetical order have been counted.

All ballot boxes from state assemblies had reached the Parliament’s strongroom on Tuesday evening and have been locked there since. The ballot boxes had been flown into the national capital as Mr Ballot Box’ from across the states.

The Election Commission had on Monday posted photographs of the sealed ballot boxes onboard flights accompanied by AROs.

According to the EC, each ballot box was issued an e-ticket under the name ‘Mr Ballot Box’.

Overview of Presidential Election

A total of 4,809 electors, comprising 776 MPs and 4,033 elected MLAs, are entitled to vote in the election, but nominated MPs and MLAs, and Members of Legislative Council are not. Over 99 per cent of the total electors had cast their ballot in the poll that took place Monday, according to the Election Commission.

Eight MPs, including BJP MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, were among those who missed casting their votes.

Two MPs each from BJP and Shiv Sena, and one each from the BSP, Congress, SP, and AIMIM missed voting in the Monday polls.