Presidential election 2022: 8 MPs including BJP's Sunny Deol fail to cast vote

As many as 8 Member of Parliament (MPs) did not cast their votes in the Presidential election which ended earlier today, July 18. BJP MP Sunny Deol is one of the leaders who did not vote in the poll that has set former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu against TMC leader Yashwant Sinha. 

Election Commission's Returning Officer PC Mody revealed that out of 736 electors (comprising 727 MPs and nine MLAs) permitted to vote by the Election Commission, 728 (719 MPs and nine MLAs) voted in the Parliament, taking the overall turnout to 98.9%.

According to the predictions by several parties, Murmu will register an easy win against Sinha to replace outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind, whose term ends on July 24. Earlier today, senior leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress President Sonia Gandhi along with Rahul Gandhi arrived at the Parliament to cast their votes. 

Who has the upper hand?

Murmu is being projected as the potential winner of the Presidential elections as experts predict her to win around 60% of the total votes. The total value of votes of the electors amounts to 10,86,431 and the winner needs to secure at least 5,43,216 votes to replace President Kovind. Notably, the cross-voting among the opposition parties has turned out to be a concern for Sinha, who faced several setbacks. 

Last week, the leader of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and former Lok Sabha member even advised Sinha to withdraw from the Presidential race as Murmu gained immense popularity among the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe politicians in the opposition.

On the other hand, Congress shifted five of its MLAs from Goa to Chennai in Tamil Nadu in order to prevent them from cross-voting. The leaders were later brought back to the state earlier today just for the elections. This move, however, appeared to have miserably failed as four MLAs voted for Murmu.

Earlier today, BJP confidently predicted that many members of the opposition will cross-vote to elect Murmu as India's first President from the tribal community.