Presidential Election: Counting begins, results by evening

Counting of votes for the Presidential election will begin at 11 today, with the BJP's candidate Draupadi Murmu expected to win over the Opposition candidateYashwant Sinha. The counting of votes will begin from 11 am in Parliament House and the results will be declared by 4 pm.

The counting process begins with the returning officers opening the ballot boxes and sort out the votes that were cast. The ballot papers of MLAs will be sorted first.

The MPs were asked to write down their order of preferences on ballot papers using green pens, while MLAs were asked to use pink pens during the voting. Two trays will be used during the counting, one for Murmu and another for Sinha.

The ballots with Murmu's name will be placed in the tray with her name, and those for Sinha in the one with his name. After sorting, the counting will begin.

The value of each MP's vote is 700, totalling 543,200 for total 776 MPs. The value of each MLA's vote depends on their state's population, so, the total value of votes of 4,033 MLAs is 543,231.

The total electors are 4,809 and the overall value of their votes is 1,086,431. The nominee who polls more votes than the required quota, 50% of total valid votes polled plus one is declared winner.

The victorious candidate will take oath on July 25, a day after the final day in office for the incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind.

Who is Draupadi Murmu?

Born on June 20, 1958, in Odisha in a simple Santhal tribal family, Draupadi Murmu started her political career in 1997. She was elected councillor of the district board in Rairangpur in 1997.

Prior to joining politics, Murmu worked as an honorary assistant teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research, Rairangpur and as a junior assistant in the Irrigation Department, before joining politics. She has been MLA twice in Odisha and also got a chance to work as a minister in the Naveen Patnaik government when the BJP was in coalition with the Biju Janata Dal.

Her tenure as the Governor of Jharkhand for more than 6 years was not only non-controversial but also memorable. After the completion of her tenure, she left the Jharkhand Raj Bhavan for her village in Odisha's Rairangpur on July 12, 2021, and is living there since then.