Murmu vs Sinha: India elects its 15th President today
The polling for the election of the President of India will begin in Parliament and respective state assemblies on Monday. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Draupadi Murmu is pitted against Yashwant Sinha, supported by the Opposition parties. The Members of Parliament will vote at a polling booth set up inside the Parliament premises. The voting will begin at 10 am.
Why does this story matter?
Murmu, the 64-year-old ex-Jharkhand governor, will be contesting against the joint Opposition candidate, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, in the July 18 presidential election. If elected—which is nearly done as the BJP-led NDA has the support of the required number of MPs and MLAs and the backing of several smaller parties—Murmu will be the first tribal woman to become the President of India.
President is elected by an electoral college
The President of India is chosen by an electoral college comprising elected members of both Houses of Parliament, representatives of state legislatures, and the union territories of Delhi and Puducherry. According to the current estimates, the electoral college consists of 776 Members of Parliament (543 Lok Sabha MPs and 233 Rajya Sabha MPs) and 4,809 members of the state legislative assemblies.
What determines the value of the votes of electoral college?
The electoral college has a total of 10,86,431 votes and the vote of each elector, an MP or MLA, has a fixed value. The value is set at 708 for each MP. This figure is derived for each MLA by a formula based on the population of the state they represent (as per the 1971 Census). As a result, the value varies per state.
Odds in favor of NDA nominee Murmu
The NDA has roughly 5.26 lakh votes (nearly 49% of total votes) in the Electoral College and needs 1% more to get its candidate elected. It just requires either YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), or All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to support its candidate. The BJD and YSRCP have about 31,000 and 45,550 votes in the Electoral College, respectively.
Who is Draupadi Murmu?
Murmu is an Odia native who served as Jharkhand's governor between 2015-21. The former BJP leader was the state's first female governor and the first to serve a full term as the state's constitutional head. If elected, Murmu will be the country's first tribal woman and only the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hold the country's highest constitutional post.
2017 vs 2022: What is NDA's position?
In 2017, when the NDA was in power in 21 states, its candidate Ram Nath Kovind won with 65.65% votes of the electoral college. In 2022, however, only 19 states are either being governed by the BJP or its alliance partners.
