Thrissur ∙ BJP’s move worked; It is certain that Draupadi Murmu will be the next President of India, who won the support of all parties. With only three days left for the 16th presidential election, data indicates that former Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu, who won more than 60 percent of the votes, will win with a huge majority.
Although he announced his candidacy with much anticipation, the joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha could not make the expected progress. Sinha’s hopes were dashed when several opposition parties, including the JMM, Janata Dal (S), Shiv Sena and the TDP, which were all for Sinha from the beginning, declared their support for Murmu at the last moment. Only the Aam Aadmi Party, which has no two sides, has declared its support for any candidate. It is estimated that Murmu will get around seven lakh votes out of 10,86,431 value votes. The election is on 18th of this month.
The BJP’s move to present Murmu as its candidate, who had a majority in the Lok Sabha but did not have a majority in terms of votes in the Electoral College, worked. The BJP’s ‘shock’ came after the opposition parties fielded a strong candidate and started moving to put the Narendra Modi government in crisis. Former union minister and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha was made the candidate after long discussions between 18 small and big parties. But the BJP leadership, which waited until the announcement of the opposition, followed by a counter-strategy.
For the first time in history, the opposition’s hopes were dashed when a candidate was announced from the tribe itself. With the addition of a woman, the unity of the opposition disintegrated. Even those who initially thought they would help Sinha did not dare to oppose the tribal candidate. It was later seen that many people in the opposition coalition were slowly retreating day by day. With most of the non-BJP parties who did not join the opposition front declaring their support for Murmu, the NDA is ensuring a massive victory. The Shiv Sena’s support for Murmu even when it ‘opposed’ the BJP underlines its political success.
∙ Kerala without support
Kerala will probably be the state where the next President has no support at all. Experts estimate that despite predicting a huge victory for Murmu, there will not be a single vote in Kerala. Yashwant Sinha, who is supported by the Left Front and the Congress, is expected to get all the votes. Perhaps, Kerala is the only state where Sinha gets full support. In the last election, President Ram Nath Kovind managed to get one vote in BJP’s Kerala.
When the polls are held this time, the figures show that the NDA alliance will get a clear majority in all but eight states. Sinha will get a huge majority in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Bengal, Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It is certain that Murmu will establish dominance in all other states. Sinha will get only a marginal vote in the North Eastern states. However, the low vote value in these places will not help Murmu’s rise.
∙ Electoral College
The President is elected by the Electoral College. The Electoral College consists of elected members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and members of the Legislative Assemblies. The value of each member’s vote is determined in proportion to the population of the country and state. It is noteworthy that the value is still determined based on the 1971 census.
The value is determined by dividing the population by the number of parliamentary seats and assembly seats. So the value of one vote of a member of parliament is 700 this time. It varies by population in states. Legislative Assembly no longer exists in Jammu and Kashmir. 5,43,200 worth of 776 people including 543 in Lok Sabha and 233 elected in Rajya Sabha. (543+233 = 776 X 700 = 5,43,200) Total number of MLAs in the Assemblies 4,089. Vote value 543,231.
Content Highlights: Presidential Poll, NDA Candidate Draupadi Murmu