Counting of votes for Presidential election begins
TNN Bureau. Updated: 7/20/2017 12:12:00 PM
National
New Delhi, Jul 20: The counting of votes for the Presidential election got underway in Parliament premises today. According to sources, the ballot box of Parliament House has been opened under the supervision of Secretary General of Lok Sabha Anoop Mishra, who is the Returning Officer for Presidential polls.
Out of 771 Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), 768 cast their votes while of 4,100 state legislators, 4,075 exercised their right to elect country's first citizen. As many as 714 MPs voted in Parliament premises while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to cast his vote in Parliament premises. There was nearly 99 per cent voting as lawmakers and legislators showed keen enthusiasm for the polls.
The term of incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee, a veteran Parliamentarian, comes to an end on July 24. Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar governor, was locked in a straight contest against Opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former diplomat-turned-politician.