As presidential poll is just in a week’s time Jharkhand Assembly secretariat is making itself prepared for the July 17 election. A team of officials including Secretary Vinay Kumar Singh who has been designated as Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) for the State by the Election Commission along with another official have been called by lok Sabha secretariat for the final leg of preparations.
All 18 Members of Parliament along with 81 member of the legislative Assembly from the State have figured into the electors’ list prepared by the Commission. Although the lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs had the choice to cast their votes here in Ranchi, none of them have opted for that.
“The MPs could have given application to do so 10 days ahead of the election but the ARO office has received none. That means the electors casting their votes at Assembly premise here on July 17 would be only members of the Assembly,” said an official of the Assembly.
The President is chosen by an electoral college comprising elected members of both lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and elected members of the legislative Assemblies. There are 82 seats of MlAs in Jharkhand but one nominated member from Anglo Indian community does not figure into the list of electors.
“Ballot boxes would arrive on July 13 for election and we have furnished the list of the voters from the State to the lok Sabha secretariat and the Commission. The ARO has also designated the venue for voting which would be the court room of the Speaker at Vidhan Sabha premise for the Presidential election,” he added.
Value of vote of each MlA of the State would be 176 and the figure has been reached based on 1971 census. That means total number of votes in store from the State is 14,256.
With this calculation, the BJP-led NDA clearly holds upper hand. Adding four members of the ally AJSU and one each of Jai Bharat Smanta Party and Navjawan Sangharsh Morcha that have voted for the ruling coalition on several occasions in the past, the tally reaches 49 and 8624 in terms of voters and total value of their votes, respectively. Opposition combine altogether is expected to pocket 32 votes valued at 5632.
Nationally combined value of votes in the Presidential elections is 10,98,903 -- 5,49,408 for MPs and 5,49,495 for MlAs. The halfway mark is expected to be 5,49,442 votes, depending on number of valid votes polled.
In the meanwhile NDA’s nominee Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to visit Ranchi on Wednesday as part of his campaign. “We have called a meeting of our members and allies at the Chief Minister’s residence on Wednesday morning in which our presidential candidate would also remain present,” said BJP State president laxman Gilua after meeting Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday. BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar also met Kovind in Delhi.
Congress on the other has appointed Bhakt Charan Das as party observer for the election. He would remain present in Ranchi on July 16-17 to oversee the poll process. Opposition parties, including JMM with its 19 MlAs, have extended support to Meira Kumar.