Along with other States and Union Territories, election to choose India’s 15th President was held at Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) complex Monday where 59 State legislators exercised their franchise.
Talking to media persons after the voting, chief minister Neiphiu Rio said he was hopeful that there was no crossvoting and exuded confidence that all legislators have voted in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu.
BJP State president and minister of Tribal Affairs and Higher Education Temjen Imna Along also expressed confidence for Murmu considering that UDA had reached a consensus to vote for the NDA candidate. The election was held as per constituency and went on for about one-and-a-half-hour.
According to a statement from the Nagaland Legislative Assembly the election was held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Out of 60 MLAs, minister for Forest, Environment & Climate Change YM Yollow could not participate in the election owing to health issues and was currently under treatment in Delhi.
Meanwhile, authorised representative of NDA candidate Murmu for Nagaland and State Transport, Railways and Civil Aviation minister P Paiwang Konyak thanked all the legislators for taking part in the election and having reached a consensus to vote in favour of the NDA candidate.
Paiwang also acknowledged Nagaland Legislative Assembly speaker Sharingain Longkumer and staff of the Assembly for making all the arrangements required throughout the day, ensuring comfort to members of the electoral college.
Fate of Murmu, Sinha sealed in ballot boxes
NEW DELHI, JUL 18 (AGENCIES): Voting for India’s next President, a spirited contest between the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate Droupadi Murmu and Opposition’s Yashwant Sinha, got over on Monday with the results scheduled to be announced on July 21.
Except for 42 lawmakers– eight MPs and 34 MLAs, all other 4,754 – 763 of 771 MPs and 3,991 of 4,025 MLAs – voted in the Presidential election, which is heavily tilted in favour of Murmu against.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues, and former PM Manmohan Singh and other top politicians lined up to cast their votes either at Parliament House or in their respective states.
Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody told the reporters that elector turnout was 99.18 per cent. “Out of the 736 electors 730 comprising 721 MPs and 9 Legislative Assembly members cast their votes,” he said.
Cross voting: Reports suggest several MLAs cross-voted against their individual party’s stand and instead opted for NDA candidate Droupdi Murmu. Congress MLAs in Haryana and Odisha, while NCP legislators of Gujarat and Jharkhand said they didn’t vote for Yashwant Sinha. Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi said he voted according to his conscience – a repeat of cross-voting he did in last month’s Rajya Sabha polls. Similarly, Odisha Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim made public his vote for Murmu whom she addressed as a “daughter of Odisha”.
Akali Dal MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali announced through a facebook post that he was boycotting the presidential elections owing to “sentiments of Sikh community”.
