Five MLAs of Uttar Pradesh Assembly will cast their vote outside Lucknow on Monday in the presidential election.
Out of these five MLAs of UP who will vote outside the state, four will cast their votes in Delhi and one in Kerala state capital Thiruvananthapuram.
The five MLAs are Mukesh Choudhary of Bharatiya Janata Party from Nakur in Saharanpur district, Ziaur Rahman of Samajwadi Party from Kundarki in Moradabad district, Pradeep Kumar Singh of Rashtriya Lok Dal from Sadabad in Hathras, Brijbhushan Rajput of BJP from Charkhari in Mahoba and Neel Ratan Patel of BJP from Sevapuri in Varanasi.
With the highest vote value of 208 for each of the total 403 MLAs, Uttar Pradesh will be an important state to watch out for in Monday’s presidential election in which National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu will take on joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Brij Bhushan Dubey, the returning officer for the presidential election in Uttar Pradesh, said five MLAs of the state would cast their votes outside the state due to personal reasons.
Elaborating on the instructions issued for the poll, he said, “All MLAs have been informed about the precautions they have to take. The MLAs will have to use a special pen to be provided by the Election Commission of India to vote for the candidate of their choice.”
“Voting will take place through ballot paper at Tilak Hall of Vidhan Bhawan from 10 am to 5 pm,” Dubey said, and added that three polling booths had been set up for two ballot boxes which had come from Delhi and would be sent back to the national capital after voting was completed on July 18 itself.
Counting of votes will be taken up in Delhi on July 21.
According to the Election Commission of India, the value of vote of an MP this time is 700. The value of vote of each MLA varies in different states. In Uttar Pradesh, the value of vote of each MLA stands at 208, followed by 176 in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, it is 175. In Sikkim, the value of vote per MLA is seven, while it is nine in Nagaland and eight in Mizoram.
The electoral college which elects the president through the system of proportional representation comprises elected MPs and members of state legislative assemblies. Nominated MPs, MLAs and members of legislative councils are not entitled to vote in this election.
The elected members of Parliament and members of the state legislative assemblies will get ballot papers of different colours when they vote to elect the next President of India. While MPs will get green papers, the MLAs will get ballot papers printed in pink. Major political parties have already announced their support for the respective candidates.
In the opposition camp, Samajwadi Party ally OM Prakash Rajbhar of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) has broken ranks and pledged support of his party to NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu. His party has six MLAs in the UP Assembly.