Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and Leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri cast their vote in the Presidential polls at the Assembly on Monday, hoping that the country will get a "good" President.
A total of 68 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, except Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain and AAP's Mustafabad MLA Haji Yunus cast their votes. While Jain is in judicial custody in an alleged money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate, Yunus is in Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage. The Chief Minister, after casting his vote at Delhi Assembly, expressed optimism that the country will get a "strong and prudent" President after the elections.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, AAP MLAs Shiv Charan Goel and Bhavna Gaur, and BJP's Mohan Singh Bisht were among the early voters. Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, all the Ministers of the Kejriwal Government and the newly-elected Rajinder Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak, too, cast their votes. NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu is pitted against joint Opposition pick Yashwant Sinha in the poll to elect the next President of the country.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had earlier announced that it would support Sinha in the polls. Voting began amid tight security arrangements at the Delhi Assembly premises at 10 A.M. and by 3 P.M. 60 MLAs, including eight from the BJP, had cast their votes, officials said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said the President of India is the highest constitutional post of the country for which voting was on, according to the due process and rules. With MLAs casting their votes for the presidential poll in the Delhi Assembly building, arrangements were made on Monday to check for any Covid-19 symptoms among those entering the premises.
An isolation room was set up at entry of Assembly building where anyone found with coronavirus-like symptoms was to be kept and checked for the infection before being allowing to proceed further.
This is the first presidential poll being held in the country after the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020.
The polling room had been set up in one of the larger rooms of the imposing single-storey British-era building of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha, officials said. BJP MLAs, including the Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri cast their votes together.
Bidhuri, said there is a lot of joy among the people of the country that a tribal woman is going to become the President of India. Droupadi Murmu is going to win the election with record votes, he said.
Nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs are entitled to vote. The Delhi Assembly has 70 seats, with the ruling AAP having 62 MLAs and the rest belonging to the BJP