- NET Web Desk
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Presidential Candidate and the former Jharkhand Governor – Draupadi Murmu on Thursday has been elected as India’s first tribal President; after defeating opposition’s joint candidate – Yashwant Sinha by a huge margin of votes.
She consolidated her lead after the second round of counting by surpassing the 50 threshold and garnered votes of 809 MLAs out of a total of 1138 MLAs in 10 states, with a vote count of 1,05,299, while the latest update noted that Sinha attained votes from 329 MLAs with vote count of 44,276, in the second round.
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand are some of the states whose votes were counted, including Andhra Pradesh where Murmu received nearly all of the votes.
Following the first round of counting, when votes of all members of both Lok Sabha (LS) and Rajya Sabha (RS) were counted, Murmu was leading with 540 of the 748 votes polled.
With each MP having a vote value of 700 in this presidential election, Murmu had a total vote value of 5,23,600 which is 72.19 per cent of the total valid vote count of MPs polled.
The Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha had received 208 votes of MPs after the first round of counting, with a total vote value of 1,45,600, which is 27.81 per cent of the total valid votes polled, Returning Officer P C Mody said on Thursday.
Votes of 15 MPs were declared invalid, he said, adding that all the votes of MPs have been counted.
Eight MPs did not vote in the presidential election, Mody said.
Murmu will be sworn-in by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) on July 25, a day after the incumbent President – Ram Nath Kovind demits office.
She is the second women president of India after Pratibha Patil; and the first woman from the tribal community to occupy the nation’s constitutional post.
