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| Presidential election today | | CM convened 'dinner meeting' of coalition legislators | |
MUNISH GUPTA
Jammu, July 18: As the Electoral College across the country decides the fate of country's next president tomorrow, the Congress led UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil is all set to garner a sweeping majority from Jammu and Kashmir.
Members of Parliament at the national level and elected legislators at the state level constitute the Electoral College for the presidential polls. Though the share of Jammu and Kashmir legislators and Members of Parliament is a small fragment of the total vote bank, still in case of a stiff competition this can influence the winning prospects of a candidate.
To keep the coalition house in order, the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today also convened a dinner meeting of legislators. Legislators of the ruling coalition in held a meeting in Srinagar and unanimously decided to vote for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate, Mrs. Pratibha Patil in the presidential election tomorrow.
The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Leader of the House and was attended, among others, by former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
All the coalition parties including Congress, Peoples' Democratic Party, CPI (M), Peoples' Democratic Front, Associated Members of Congress and Independents participated.
The total vote value of Jammu and Kashmir legislators is 6264 as value of each legislator's vote has been fixed at 72. There are ten members of Parliament from Jammu and Kashmir –six in Lok Sabha and Four in Rajya Sabha. Each vote of an MP has a fixed value of 708 –the total value of the votes of Members of Parliament from Jammu and Kashmir comes out to be 7080.
Thus the total vote share from Jammu and Kashmir for the Presidential Elections is calculated at 13344.
With National Conference vowing support to the UPA candidate Pratibha Patil and the coalition partners Peoples Democratic Party and the Congress putting a united front there are hardly seven legislators who may vote for the BJP led NDA backed candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. With four legislators of the Panthers Party, one from BJP and one from JSM are likely to vote against Patil. The total of value of those who are likely to vote against Pratibha Patil is not likely to be more than 432. therefore Pratibha Patil is all set to bag nearly 13,000 votes from Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, reports reaching here from New Delhi said that the decks are set for voting in the 13th Presidential polls tomorrow with foolproof security arrangements being put in place to ensure peaceful and orderly conduct of the exercise that would decide the fate of UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil and NDA supported Independent candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
''Absolutely foolproof and perfect arrangements have been made for the Presidential polls. Election Commission has appointed two observors who have inspected the arrangements and are fully satisfied,'' Returning Officer and Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary was quoted by agencies as saying.
A total of 4,895 electors, including both MPs and MLAs, are likely to participate in the nationwide voting process. The number of MPs have come down to 775 due to the death of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar while 4,120 MLAs from various states and union territories would also exercise their franchise.
Achary said the voting would take place in Room number 62 of the Parliament House while in states it would take place in respective assemblies between 1000hrs to 1700hrs tomorrow. Six voting booths have been set up in the Parliament House and the voting process would be manual as no Electronic Voting Machine being used in this election.
Apart from the MPs, five MLAs would also vote in Parliament House. The MPs would vote on green ballot paper which have two columns carrying the names of both the contestants while the MLAs would vote on pink ballots. Just like these MLAs, who include four from North East and one from Bihar, 51 MPs have also sought Election Commission's permission to cast vote in their own state's assemblies or some other place. Overseas Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, who is an MP from Kerala, would vote in Chennai where he is at present.
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