Polling for the much awaited Presidential elections has begun in Parliament House as well as state capitals for electing a new president on July 18, 2012. The race for the president’s post clearly seems clearly in favour of the UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee who will be facing P A Sangma sponsored by some opposition parties.
During the early hours, brisk polling was witnessed with MK Alagiri of DMK. While early voters included BJD MPs led by B Mahtab and Pratap Singh Bajwa of the Congres. Prime minister Manmohan Singh was expected to cast his vote at 11 am.
About 4,120 MLAs and 776 MPs with a total vote value of 10.98 lakh votes are eligible to cast their ballot for the 14th Presidential elections. A day before Sonia Gandhi announced to host lunch for the supporters of the UPA candidates, the Trinamool Congress announced their support for Pranab Mukherjee.
The UPA candidates also have support from the NDA, Shiv Sena as also the CPI (M) and Forward Bloc. While the CPI, TDP, RSP and TRS which together have about 36,000 votes are likely to abstain from voting. The electors are supposed to furnish either their identity card or a letter from the poll authority before they are allowed to vote for the presidential elections.
