Indian Tribal News Service
New Delhi
The JMM and SBSP’s announcement of supporting Draupadi Murmu — close on the heels of the Shiv Sena’s — for the apex constitutional post of President of India came along expected lines.
Tribals form a majority of JMM’s vote bank in Jharkhand and Murmu is the first tribal woman to be set to become the President. Murmu also has a Jharkhand connection as she is a former Governor of the State, where tribals constitute nearly 27 percent of the population. Moreover, the JMM and the BJP are apparently drawing close, which political observers say, could impact the existing UPA coalition in the State post-Presidential polls.
JMM supremo Shibu Soren on Thursday issued a letter addressing all its MPs and MLAs to vote for Murmu. The value of votes of MPs in Jharkhand is 700 and that of MLAs stands at 176. The JMM has 30 MLAs, 2 Rajya Sabha MPs and 1 Lok Sabha MP.
On his part, SBSP chief OP Rajbhar, an ally of Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, had recently attended a dinner hosted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath “to discuss extending support to Murmu” sending indications of his growing proximity with the BJP again. He had quit the NDA in the State before the Assembly polls to join hands with Akhilesh. On Friday, he said his party decided to support Murmu “on the request of Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah”. The SBSP has 6 MLAs.
Besides the support of the BJP and its NDA allies like JD (U) and Apna Dal, Murmu also has the backing of regional parties like the BJD, YSR-CP, BSP, AIADMK, TDP, JD(S), SAD and Shiv Sena. Thus, Murmu’s committed vote share is now past 60 percent, which is over 12 percent more than the share she was estimated to have on her side at the time of her nomination.
The President is elected by an electoral college consisting of MPs of both Houses of Parliament and MLAs of the States besides Delhi and Puducherry. Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of State Legislative Councils cannot vote.
THE NUMBERS GAME
- There are a total of 776 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and each has 700 votes. There are 4,033 legislators in the States with different vote values.
- The total value of votes of MPs and MLAs stands at 10,86,431. The MPs have a total vote value of 5,43,200 while the total MLA votes are valued at 5,43,231.
- A candidate needs to secure one vote more than half of the total number of vote values to win the elections — which means 5,43,216 votes.
- Initially, when her name was announced, Murmu had the support of NDA, which has around 48 percent of the total vote share
- The NDA (BJP and allies) has a vote value of 3,08,000. The BJP has 301 Lok Sabha MPs and 92 Rajya Sabha MPs.
- Regional parties supporting Murmu: Biju Janata Dal (32,000 votes), AIADMK (17,200 votes), YSRCP (44,000 votes), TDP (6,500 votes), Shiv Sena (25,000 votes) and the Janata Dal (Secular) (5,600 votes).
- BJP’s win in Assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand besides the numbers going in its favour in the changed political equations in Maharashtra gives a further boost to Murmu’s chances.
- The NDA has 440 MPs in its favour, while the opposition UPA has around 220 MPs who are expected to vote for its nominee Yashwant Sinha.
- As of July 15, a couple of days before the Presidential polls are to be held, Murmu has over 6.67 lakh committed votes including those from the Opposition camp.
- This is over 1.20 lakh votes more than the required majority and is around 61 percent of the total votes and an over 12 percent increase in Murmu’s favour.
