Jharkhand gears up for Presidential poll, Droupadi has a clear edge 

Ranchi, July 17 Jharkhand is geared up for holding presidential election on Monday and all preparations have been completed.

Voting will take place at Tribunal Hall of Jharkhand Assembly from 10 AM to 5 PM said Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar 

“Voting arrangements have been made for the MLAs, as the MPs from the state have not opted for polling here,” Kumar said.

Jharkhand has 14 Lok Sabha and six Rajya Sabha MPs and they are scheduled to exercise their franchise in Delhi.

“MPs have an option to either cast their votes at the state assembly or in Delhi. If they wish to exercise their franchise in the Vidhan Sabha, they need to inform us at least 10 days before the polling,” he said.

After the polling is held, the ballot box will be sent to Delhi aboard a flight at 1 PM on Tuesday. The counting will take place in the national capital, another official said.

Both NDA and Opposition candidates in the presidential election have a deep-rooted connection with Jharkhand.

NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu was the state’s governor. She is from the Santal tribe, which has a sizeable population in Jharkhand as well as in neigbhbouring Odisha, from where she hails.

Murmu had arrived in Ranchi on July 4 to garner support from lawmakers. She had met JMM supremo Shibu Soren and Chief Minister Hemant Soren to seek their support. The party announced its support for Murmu on July 15.

Yashwant Sinha, the joint Opposition nominee, was an MP from Jharkhand’s Hazaribag district and was a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet.

Sinha had concluded his campaign in Ranchi on Saturday. He has met the CM, and Congress MLAs and sought their support for the election.

In the 81-member House, the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has a combined strength of 48. JMM alone has 30 seats.

BJP has 26 legislators, including Babulal Marandi, the former JVM-P chief who joined the saffron camp after the 2019 assembly elections.

As per calculation of presidential poll, the value of an MLA in Jharkhand is 176, while that of an MP is 700. The total value of votes of 81 MLAs and 20 MPs in the state is 28,256.

With JMM having 30 MLAs and three MPs, its total value of votes will be around 7,380. The value of NDA including BJP and AJSU is around 15,428.

Since the JMM has declared its support for Murmu, the total value of votes in support of the NDA nominee will be around 22,808.

With Congress’ support, the value of votes in favour of Sinha is expected to be around 4,392.