Brisk polling is in progress in Parliament House and state capitals for electing a new President. Over 350 members of Parliament and legislators had cast their votes in the first hour.M K Alagiri of DMK, Opposition BJD MP B Mahtab and Pratap Singh Bajwa of Congress were among early voters. Prominent among those who exercised their franchise so far include Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Defence Minister A K Antony, Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and BJP leader Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi. BSP Supremo Mayawati and NCP President Sharad Pawar also cast their votes.
In Nagaland, all the 60 MLAs including Chief Minister cast their vote in Kohima. In Puducherry, all the 30 MLAs including the Chief Minister have exercised their right of franchise.
In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was the first to cast her vote in Chennai.Assembly Speaker D Jayakumar followed her apart from DMK Chief M Karunanidhi.
The polling began at 10:00 AM and will continue till 5:00 PM. UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee, faces P A Sangma sponsored by some opposition parties in the poll. As many as 4,120 MLAs and 776 MPs with a total vote value of 10.98 lakh votes are eligible to cast their ballot in the Presidential election. Members of the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies make up the electoral college for the Presidential election. Besides the UPA and its four supporting parties -SP, BSP, RJD, JD(S) — NDA members JD(U) and Shiv Sena as also the CPI(M) and Forward Bloc have declared their support for Mukherjee.
The CPI, RSP, TDP and TRS, which together have about 36,000 votes, are likely to abstain from voting.
There are around 32,000 votes with smaller parties who have no presence in Parliament but have legislators in the
states.
Sangma, a former Lok Sabha Speaker was initially supported by the BJD and AIADMK. The BJP and Akali Dal decided to back Sangma, who quit the NCP.
Elaborate arrangements have been made at Parliament House and in Assembly buildings in every state capital, including to enable the electors to cast their vote. The Election Commission has granted permission to 77 MPs to cast their votes in different state capitals, while eight MLAs from seven states have got the nod of the poll authority to vote in Parliament House. The counting of votes will take place on Sunday from 11:00 AM onwards.
