Chennai: 232 Tamil Nadu MLAs, Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan and one MLA from Kerala Assembly are expected to exercise their franchise in the Presidential election on Monday in the Secretariat campus here.
With the RK Nagar constituency represented by late Jayalalithaa lying vacant and DMK chief Karunanidhi, who represents Tiruvarur in the Assembly, indisposed, the remaining 232 legislators are expected to vote to elect either Ram Nath Kovind or Meira Kumar as the next President of India. The polling would open at 10 am and end at 5 pm.
Polling station at the State Secretariat complex.
While all 133 MLAs of the AIADMK and its allied partners who contested on Two Leaves are expected to vote for NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, Tamimum Ansari, a Muslim MLA who won on the AIADMK’s symbol, has said he would against the ruling combine’s candidate due to its “communal policies.”
Kovind is expected to secure more than 70 per cent of the votes with only DMK and Congress, which have 98 MLAs, to vote for Opposition candidate Meira Kumar.
As many as 55 out of 57 MPs – 37 from Lok Sabha and 18 from Rajya Sabha – would vote in the Parliament complex polling booth in New Delhi. Pon Radhakrishnan, Lok Sabha member from Nagercoil will vote in Chennai.
Abdullah, an MLA from Kerala, will be voting here since he has sought prior permission from the Election Commission. President of India is elected through the Electoral College consisting of MPs belonging to both Houses of Parliament and MLAs of all state assemblies in the country.
The value of the vote of an MLA in Tamil Nadu is 176 and the value of MP’s vote is 708. After the polling, the ballot box would be transported to New Delhi where counting of votes would be taken up on Thursday.
Elaborate arrangements have been made at the Assembly hall inside the Secretariat campus for the voting on Monday. Apart from deploying police personnel to ensure smooth process, the Election Commission has also asked the members not to carry their personal pens inside the voting chamber.
They will have to mark their ballot with a specially designed marker, the Election Commission said.
PMK's lone member won’t be voting
PMK’s lone Lok Sabha MP Anbumani Ramadoss will not be voting in Monday’s Presidential election with his party deciding to boycott the polls as its demand for constitution of Cauvery Management Board (CMB) has not been met by the Union Government.
The PMK had said on June 30 that Anbumani would boycott the polls if the BJP did not assure to form the CMB within a month.
“We put forth our demand that an announcement regarding constitution of CMB should come within one month if the BJP wants our vote. But since the announcement has not come, the PMK has decided to stick to its decision of boycotting the polls,” Anbumani, MP from Dharmapuri, told DC.
Tamil Nadu has 8 per cent of votes in the Electoral College which elects the President and this was a “golden opportunity” to exert pressure on the Centre to constitute CMB, Anbumani said.
