Voting to elect India’s 15th President will take place today. NDA’s candidate Droupadi Murmu and Opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha are going to be on field to race in the elections. However, the support from multiple parties to Ms Murmu has to a good extent has made all clear.
The voting is scheduled to take place on the first day of Parliament’s Monsoon session. Back in 2017 also, Droupadi Murmu was a strong candidate for the presidential elections, but Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind was elected as the President.
Ms Murmu is a tribal woman from Odisha and a former Jharkhand Governor having support from Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is seen as a very rational choice for the presidential elections.
The tribal leader has also a backing of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and according to the reports both the factions id Shiv Sena split after a dissidence are likely to back Ms Murmu.
However, earlier the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray was backing the opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha but after 16 MPs met the Sena President and urged to back Ms Murmu, the decision got changed.
Meanwhile, the Opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha is a former Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government settled for standing for the elections after denial of three proposed candidates. He had switched to Trinamool Congress In 2021 just ahead West Bengal assembly elections.
The three proposed candidates of Opposition who denied for contesting were Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, National Congress Chief Sharad Pawar and former Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi.
Members of Electoral College, comprising of elected members from both the Houses of Parliament, Legislative assemblies of all states and also including from the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry elect President in every five years.
