Draupadi Murmu far ahead in Presidential Polls after first round, secures 540 votes, 15 votes invalid

BHUBANESWAR: The Presidential election vote counting is in progress as Draupadi Murmu looks out of reach for the opposition candidate. After counting the votes of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, Murmu has the support of 540 people in the first round. Yashwant Sinha got the support of only 208 MPs and the votes of 15 MPs were invalid. There were a total of 748 MP votes. Now the votes from the states are being counted. It is now almost certain that Murmu will win with a huge majority. Murmu's 540 votes are now worth 3,78,000. The value of votes received by Sinha is 1,45,600.

The turnout in the presidential election held on July 18 was 99.18 percent. NDA's Draupadi Murmu and joint opposition's Yashwant Sinha contested head-to-head. Yashwant was the opposition candidate but many opposition parties voted for Murmu. Likewise, cross-voting was widely held.

Contrary to the Samajwadi Party stand, party MLA Shivpal Yadav also voted for Murmu. He said he won't vote for Yashwant Sinha, who called Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam an ISI agent. He is Mulayam's younger brother and party president Akhilesh Yadav's brother-in-law.

Congress MLA from Odisha Muhammad Moquim voted for Draupadi Murmu against the party stand. Gujarat's NCP MLA S Jadeja and some Congress MLAs from Assam voted for Murmu.