India To Get Its New President Today

BJP planned a celebration for Ms Murnmu's victory


Presidential vote counting will commence from 11 AM onwards today. The BJP is making elaborate preparations to celebrate the victory of Droupadi Murmu over opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

As per the officials, the counting of votes will begin at 11 am in Parliament House. The results are expected around 4 pm.

Ahead of the results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Ms Murmu at her temporary lodgings in Teen Murti Marg and congratulate her after the election results are declared, sources said.

The Delhi BJP has planned a roadshow after Ms Murmu's victory from the party headquarters to Rajpath. Many senior leaders will be present on the occasion, sources added.

All state units of the BJP have also planned victory processions, which will be taken out after the announcement of the results.

Moreover, The residents in Odisha's Rairangpur, the hometown of Ms Murmu, are also ready to celebrate with 20,000 sweets prepared. A tribal dance and victory procession has also been planned.

The NDA choice of Ms Murmu -- a tribal woman from Odisha and a former Jharkhand Governor -- is seen as a move calculated to split the opposition and bring support from non-aligned parties like Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal and the Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress.

Overall, 34 parties declared support for the Opposition candidate, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and 44 for Droupadi Murmu, the former Governor of Jharkhand. But several MLAs have confessed to cross-voting in favour of Ms Murmu.

The counting of votes will be preceded by sorting, in which votes of MPs and MLAs will be separated. The value of the vote of each MP is fixed at 700, while the value of the vote of MLAs from each state is different.

 

 

The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.