Opposition goes with Yashwant Sinha, NDA picks Droupadi Murmu
India’s election to the post of President has become active on Tuesday with Opposition parties first announcing former BJP leader and Finance Minister and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and their joint candidate and in the evening ruling party BJP announcing former Governor Draupadi Murmu as their candidate. The ruling BJP alliance is a little short of a majority in the Presidential Electoral College and needs the support of one or two regional parties for the victory of their candidate Draupadi Murmu.
India’s Presidential Electoral College has a total of 10,86,431 votes, comprising all elected MPs and MLAs. BJP with all its allies including the currently sulking JDU has around 5,35,000 votes. It must be remembered Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JDU is a BJP ally and it would be interesting to know his stand when his old friend Yashwant Sinha is in the fray. Draupadi Murmu said that being from Odisha, she will request Odisha’s ruling party BJD’s support and within minutes Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik announced his support to her.
Telangana ruling party TRS and Andhra Pradesh ruling party YSR Congress has not yet opened their cards, though they did not attend the 17 Opposition parties’ meeting to select Yashwant Sinha. Delhi and Punjab ruling party AAP also not attended the meeting. AIADMK has not yet announced its stand on the presidential election scheduled on July 18.
Draupadi Murmu (64) hailing from Odisha belongs to a tribal community Santal. She was a teacher and entered into politics as a BJP member from the Panchayat level to the Assembly level and she was a Minister too. She was Governor of Jharkhand and the media reported her name as a possible candidate for the 2017 presidential election also, where Prime Minister Modi preferred then Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind from the Dalit community.[1]
Yashwant Sinha (84) was a senior BJP leader and was Finance and External Affairs Minister in Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Cabinet. He was Finance Minister in Prime Minister Chandrasekhar’s Cabinet also. Started his career as College Lecturer, Sinha joined IAS in 1960 and joined politics in 1984 by joining Janata Party and later to Janata Dal and to BJP. Being arch-rival of Prime Minister Modi, he left BJP and joined TMC in 2021. His son Jayant Sinha (former Minister of State in Finance is still BJP MP from 2014). For the past nine years, Sinha is Modi’s critic and minced no words, though his son Jayant was in Modi’s Ministry.
Details of India’s Presidential College Electorate
While there are 776 MPs of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, each having 700 votes, there are as many as 4033 legislators in States with different votes who will elect the new President of India on July 18. Though the final list of electors will be notified after the bye-elections (June 10 results came) to three Lok Sabha seats and the Rajya Sabha polls to 16 seats, the NDA has 440 MPs in its favor while the Opposition UPA has around 180 MPs, besides 36 MPs of Trinamool Congress who normally support the Opposition candidate.
According to rough calculations, the NDA has around 5,35,000 votes out of a total of 10,86,431 votes of all electors. This includes 3,08,000 votes with the support of its MPs along with that of its allies.
The BJP-led NDA candidate may get the support of some regional parties including the AIADMK, the BJD, and the YSRCP for its candidate in the Presidential poll. Among the states, the BJP has a maximum of 56,784 votes from Uttar Pradesh where it has 273 MLAs. Each MLA in Uttar Pradesh has a maximum vote of 208. The NDA will get its second-highest votes among states from Bihar where with 127 MLAs, it will get 21,971 votes as each legislator has 173 votes, followed by 18,375 votes from Maharashtra where it has 105 MLAs and each has 175 votes.
With 131 MLAs, the NDA will get 17,161 votes from Madhya Pradesh, 16,464 votes from 112 MLAs from Gujarat, and 15,982 votes from its 122 MLAs in Karnataka. The Congress-led UPA, on the other hand, has a little over 1,50,000 votes among its MPs and will get around the same number of votes from its legislators in states. Opposition candidates in the past too have been getting a little more than 3 lakh votes in the previous elections for the highest post in the country.
The value of the vote of a Member of Parliament has gone down to 700 from 708 in the Presidential polls this time due to the absence of a Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. The value of the vote of an MP in a Presidential election is based on the number of elected members in Legislative Assemblies of States and Union Territories, including Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Reference:
[1] Who is Draupadi Murmu? – Jun 13, 2017, Indian Express
PGurus is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with all the latest news and views
For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.
- Reliance Capital lenders urge Hinduja Group arm to stick to resolution plan deadline - April 30, 2024
- Supreme Court rejects plea to tally all VVPAT slips with EVM votes; says ‘no going back to paper ballot’ - April 26, 2024
- US report citing human rights violations is deeply biased: India - April 25, 2024
Mr.Yashwant Sinha should be ashamed to contest against Mrs Murmu, someone more like his daughter’s age, coming from the most modest background, reached where she has on MERIT, with no controversies despite a full term as Governor in an opposition rules state nor a party hopping history.SHE HAS EVERYTHING THAT SINHA DOES NOT HAVE.