Droupadi Murmu versus Yashwant Sinha: Presidential elections begin

The new President of India will take oath on July 25.

Elections for India’s next President are being held today. It’s a race between NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu and the Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. The election – on the first day of the Parliament’s Monsoon session, is being held as the tenure of current President Ram Nath Kovind, gets over. The new President will take oath on July 25.

The President is elected by members of the Electoral College, comprising elected members of both houses of the Parliament and legislative assemblies of all states and the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry. No party whip can be issued for the voting and MPs and MLAs can vote for whichever candidate they want.

Murmu is former Governor of Jharkhand, and has support of not only the NDA partners but also Jharkhand’s ruling party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik. Murmu hails from Odisha. She is also being supported by both the factions of the Shiv Sena and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The Opposition is supporting Yashwant Sinha, former Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government who later joined Trinamool Congress.

The winner will be the 15th President of India.

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