Presidential poll today, MPs, MLAs to cast votes to elect the 15th President of India

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Along with the Parliament and other State Assemblies, the Assam Legislative Assembly (ALA) will go to the polls tomorrow to elect the 15th President of India.

The voting will start at 10 am and conclude at 5 pm. Barring Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah, the 125 other MLAs of the state will cast their votes in the Assam Assembly Secretariat. Norah will cast his vote in Parliament. He took the necessary permission for that.

Talking to The Sentinel, ARO (Additional Returning Officer) Dulal Pegu said, "The stage is all set for tomorrow's presidential poll. The Election Commission of India (ECI) sent its Additional Secretary to the Government of India, Leena Johri, to Assam as the observer. Assam CEO Nitin Khade will be present during the poll."

Pegu also said, "After the polling, we will seal the ballot box as per guidelines. We may hand over the ballot box to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat following all protocols by tomorrow night."

Apart from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, MLAs also cast votes in the presidential poll.

The presidential election this time will be a straight fight between NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu and Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.

Earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) appointed Assam Legislative Assembly Secretary Dulal Pegu and Joint Secretary Rajib Bhattacharjee as assistant returning officers (AROs).

The presidential poll takes place on secret ballots.

The counting will be on July 21, 2022, in New Delhi.

The value of the votes of MLAs differs from state to state based on their population. The value of a vote of an MLA in Assam is 116.

Apart from the 63 BJP MLAs, the AGP (9), UPPL (7) and BPF (3) also declared that they would vote for NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu. Thus, the NDA candidate will get at least 82 votes from the state.

Meanwhile, the AIUDF announced that their MLAs would vote for Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. AIUDF has 15 MLAs. The State Assembly has 27 Congress MLA, one CPI-M and one independent (Raijor Dal) legislator who have declared to vote for the Opposition candidate.

Parties cannot issue whips in the presidential poll. Party agents also cannot see to votes of their legislators.

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