Patna, July 18 (PTI) An ailing Bihar cooperative minister Subhash Singh, could not cast his vote in the polls that took place Monday to elect the President of India.
As many as 241 MLAs out of 243 in Bihar exercised their franchise on Monday that concluded at 5 pm. Voting began in Bihar Assembly here at 10 a.m. on Monday to elect the 15th president of the country. The contestants included NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu and UPA’s Yashwant Sinha.
Talking to reporters, after conclusion of voting, BJP MLA and party’s observer for the Presidential polls, Sanjay Saraogi, said, “Our party MLA and state minister Subhash Singh could not cast his vote as he is not well and he is currently admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi). Remaining all 126 NDA MLAs cast their votes in favor of our Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu”.
“I can say it with full confidence that Mumrmu will get votes of more than 126 MLAs from Bihar,” he claimed. Saraogi, however, refused to elobrate on his claim.
However, on the condition of anonymity another senior BJP leader in the state claimed that a section of women MLAs from the opposition parties may have voted in favor of Murmu.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, Deputy Chief Ministers- Tarkishore Prasad & Renu Devi, and Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, were among the early voters. While BJP MLA Mithilesh Kumar, who had met with a road accident about a month ago, arrived on a stretcher to cast his vote, party MLA from Jhajha, Damodar Rawat, cast his vote wearing a PPE kit. The MLA had tested positive for covid-19.
According to a statement issued by the Presiding Officer of the Presidential Election in Bihar, “Total 34 unused ballot papers were sent back to the Election Commission along with the sealed ballot box. Only 241 ballot papers out of 275 were used by the MLAs. Besides, all 50 ballot papers meant for MPs, were sent back to the election commission, as no MP from Bihar cast his or her vote in the poll at Patna”.
There are a total of 56 MPs from Bihar – 40 Lok Sabha and 16 Rajya Sabha members, who together have a vote value of 39,200. Out of this Murmu is expected to garner 33,600 as the alliance has 39 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 9 MPs in Rajya Sabha.
As the value of each MLA’s vote from Bihar is 173, the total value of the votes of MLAs from the state is 41,866 after the disqualification of RJD MLA Anant Singh from the 243-member House last week. In the state assembly, the ruling coalition now has 127 MLAs. The BJP has 77, JD(U) 45, HAM four and one independent. The opposition RJD has 79 MLAs, Congress 19, CPI(ML) 12, CPI(M) and CPI two each.
The tally of RJD, which is the single largest party in Bihar Assembly went down to 79 last week with the disqualification of party MLA Anant Singh following his conviction under different sections of the Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act and the IPC. AIMIM has one MLA in the Bihar Assembly, its lone legislator Akhtarul Iman refused to speak to media after casting his vote. PTI PKD JRC JRC
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