National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu held a meeting with the lawmakers of Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies and sought support in the presidential election to be held on July 18 as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath exuded confidence that the NDA candidate would comfortably win the election.
Murmu visited Lucknow on Friday and met NDA leaders, including legislators and parliamentarians from UP, and sought their support in the presidential election.
"I am confident that Draupadi Murmu will comfortably win the presidential election. It is a matter of happiness that a tribal woman is running for the highest constitutional post of the country," Yogi Adityanath said during the meeting with NDA leaders here on Friday.
Murmu was given a rousing welcome when she reached Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport here around 3 pm. She was welcomed at the airport by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his two Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak. Minister Aseem Arun played the dholak at the airport to welcome Draupadi Murmu.
From the airport, Murmu reached VVIP Naimisharanya guest house where several leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, including state president Swatantra Dev Singh, were present.
The airport compound was decorated with flowers and the road connecting the airport was dotted with hoardings carrying pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu while BJP workers lined up along the road outside with party flags to welcome her.
Murmu kicked off her visit by offering floral tributes to the photo of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee before meeting the NDA lawmakers at Lok Bhawan.
Uttar Pradesh is going to play an important role in the presidential election as the state has the highest share of 14.86 per cent in the country's total vote value of 10,86,431 for the presidential election. UP has the maximum 80 Lok Sabha and 403 assembly seats. The value of the vote of MP is 700, which is same across the country, while the value of the vote of the MLA is 208, which is the highest on the basis of population.
The value of one MP's vote is equal to 700 votes. In such a situation, the value of the vote of the NDA Lok Sabha MPs from UP will be 44,800 as it has 64 out of 80 MPs while in Rajya Sabha the value of votes of BJP is 17,500 as it has 25 MPs.
If the votes of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members are taken together, then the vote value of BJP from UP is 62,300.
In the case of Vidhan Sabha, out of its 403 members in UP, there are 273 MLAs from BJP and allies. With the value of an MLA vote being 208, the value of votes of BJP and its allies would be 56,784. Thus, the value of the votes of BJP and allies in UP is about 1.21 lakh. “UP will play a big role to ensure victory of Draupadi Murmu with a record margin,” Yogi said.