Pranab may get 12,264 votes in J&K, Sangma 1008
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 18: Battle lines were drawn for tomorrow’s Presidential election across the country in which UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee, former Finance Minister was pitted in direct contest with BJP nominee PA Sangma, former Lok Sabha Speaker.
In Jammu and Kashmir, a final touch was today given to preparations for the election. Voting would be held in the Central Hall of Legislature in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State from 10 am to 5 pm, Assistant Returning Officer and Secretary, Legislative Assembly, Mohammad Ramzan said.
Mr Ramzan told the Excelsior that ballot boxes would be sent to New Delhi in the morning of July 20, where counting of votes would take place on July 22 and the result would be declared by the evening.
The Electoral College for the President election in Jammu and Kashmir comprised 87 MLAs and 10 Members of Parliament (MPs)—six of Lok Sabha and four of Rajya Sabha having total vote value of 13,344.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his Cabinet colleagues, two Presiding Officers including Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone and Deputy Speaker Sartaj Madni and MLAs of all political parties and Independents have reached Srinagar to exercise their right to franchise tomorrow.
Term of President Pratibha Patil is ending on July 25. The new President would be in place before that. Going by the equations, Mr Mukherjee was likely to have smooth sailing to Raisina Hills.
Official sources here said excepting Independent MLA from Bishnah, Ashwani Sharma, all other 86 MLAs and 10 MPs were clearly divided between the two Presidential candidates. Mr Sharma, though camping in Srinagar, said he hasn’t made up his mind on whether to cast the vote or abstain. “I will take a decision tomorrow morning on whom to cast the vote if I decided to take part in the elections’’, he said.
Sources said the MPs can cast their vote either in the Parliament House polling centre in New Delhi or their home State. They can exercise their right to vote even in other States, if they were out of station, but with the permission of the Election Commission. The MLAs had to vote in their home State but they too can cast their votes outside the State with permission of the Election Commission.
While all 10 MPs—six from Lok Sabha and four from Rajya Sabha—from Jammu and Kashmir would vote for Mr Mukherjee, out of 86 MLAs, 72 would cast their vote in favour of the UPA nominee taking his vote bank to 12,264.
Remaining 14 MLAs with a total vote value of 1008 would vote for BJP backed candidate PA Sangma. They including seven BJP rebels headed by former Union Minister Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, MLA Jammu West, four BJP MLAs and three National Panthers Party (NPP) legislators.
Two Nominated women MLAs—Indu Pawar and Bimla Luthra were not entitled to cast vote in the Presidential election. The Upper House members (MLCs) were also not part of the Electoral College for President’s election.
All MPs and MLAs of ruling coalition alliance—National Conference and Congress besides main opposition party—the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), one each MLA from CPM, DPN and PDF and two Independent candidates—Engineer Abdul Rashid and Charanjit Singh Jasrotia were voting for Mr Mukherjee.
NC is the largest party in the Assembly with 27 MLAs followed by opposition PDP with 21 and Congress 17.
The State has 10 MPs, six of whom were directly elected by the people (members of Lok Sabha) while four others were elected by the MLAs (members of Rajya Sabha). All of them belonged to ruling National Conference-Congress coalition.
Of six elected MPs, three belonged to National Conference including Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar-Budgam seat), Sharief-ud-Din Shariq (Baramulla-Kupwara) and Dr Mehboob Beg (Anantnag-Pulwama). Two MPs from Jammu—Madan Lal Sharma (Jammu-Poonch) and Choudhary Lal Singh (Udhampur-Doda) belonged to Congress. Independent MLA from Ladakh Ghulam Hassan Commander was also affiliated to the NC.
Four Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir were Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad and PCC (I) president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz (both from Congress), Mohammad Shaffi Uri and GN Ratanpuri (both National Conference).
PTI adds from New Delhi:-
The stage is all set for the Presidential poll tomorrow with UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee expected to romp home with a substantial margin against BJP-backed P A Sangma.
As many as 4,896 lawmakers — 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs—are eligible to vote in Parliament and state assemblies. The total vote value is 10.98 lakh and a winning candidate needs to get 5,49,442 vote value if all of them exercise franchise.
UPA election managers are claiming a runaway victory for Mukherjee who is expected to get around 7.5 lakh vote value.
The votes will be counted on Sunday and the result is expected to be known by early evening.
The run-up to the Presidential poll saw its twists and turns with key UPA ally Trinamool Congress first declaring its opposition to Mukherjee only to take “the painful decision” to back him.
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, jumped into the fray playing the tribal card with initial support of the BJD and AIADMK. The BJP and Akali Dal decided to back Sangma, who quit the NCP, the party he founded with Sharad Pawar, to contest the election.
With the support of SP (66,688 vote value), BSP (45,473), JD-U (40,737), Shiv Sena (18,495), JD-S (6,138) and CPI-M and Forward Bloc (around 41,000), Mukherjee can expect vote share of around 7.5 lakh.
In the electoral arithmetic, Sangma is expected to be way behind Mukherjee and is likely to garner around 3.15 lakh vote value.
On the eve of Presidential elections, the UPA projected a united picture as a lunch hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi saw the presence of all constituents and supporting parties including Trinamool Congress.
K D Singh and Sukendhu Sekhar Roy- both Rajya Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress—were sent by Banerjee to participate in the luncheon get-together a day after she declared her party’s support to Mukherjee.
Sangma, who is being backed by some opposition parties, accepted that TMC not voting for him was a setback.
But the tribal leader, who is reportedly mulling over filing a petition in the Supreme Court against Mukherjee for allegedly holding an office of profit, has still not lost hopes of a victory.
“You wait till July 22,” he said when asked about his prospects.
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