Prez election: Goa, Gujarat and TN sees brisk polling
Panaji
(Goa):
The
voting
for
the
presidential
election
began
in
Goa
with
Chief
Minister
Manohar
Parrikar
among
the
first
few
to
cast
his
vote.
Parrikar
said,
BJP-backed
presidential
candidate
PA
Sangma
would
get
around
30
votes,
out
of
the
total
40.
The
voting,
which
began
at
10
AM,
saw
majority
of
BJP
legislators
polling
their
votes
while
only
a
few
Congress
legislators
arrived
to
vote.
Chennai
(TN):
AIADMK
supremo
and
Tamil
Nadu
Chief
Minister
Jayalalithaa
was
one
of
the
early
voters
at
the
polling
booth
for
the
Presidential
polls
which
was
underway
at
the
Secretariat
here.
Polling
began
on
a
brisk
note
at
the
Committee
Room,
Tamil
Nadu
Legislative
Assembly,
with
the
legislators
queueing
upto
cast
their
votes.
The Election Commission said 15 MPs will be voting in Chennai. Tamil Nadu has a total of 39 Lok Sabha MPs and 18 Rajya Sabha MPs. The 234-member state Assembly is dominated by the ruling AIADMK with 150 MLAs. The party has nine Lok Sabha and five Rajya Sabha MPs.
AIADMK is backing former Lok Sabha Speaker and NDA's Presidential candidate PA Sangma who wound up his campaign on Wednesday after calling on Jayalalithaa. M Karunanidhi-led DMK, a key constituent of the Congress-led UPA at the Centre, has announced its support for UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee. DMK has 18 Lok Sabha and seven Rajya Sabha MPs besides 23 MLAs in the state Assembly.
Main opposition party DMDK, founded by actor-politician Vijayakant, has announced boycotting the elections. The party has a strength of 29 MLAs. According to the EC, the value of vote of each MLA in Tamil Nadu was 176 and therefore the total value of votes for the state was 41,184.
Gandhinagar
(Gujarat):
Voting
for
the
presidential
election
began
with
Guajrat
Chief
Minister
Narendra
Modi
being
among
the
first
few
to
cast
his
vote.
Modi
arrived
at
the
polling
booth
located
in
the
Gujarat
Assembly
premises
just
before
the
official
time
of
voting
at
10:00
hrs
and
casted
his
vote.
Polling was brisk in the morning as one day assembly session of Gujarat legislative assembly is also scheduled today. Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Arjun Modhwadia and leader of opposition Shaktisinh Gohil were also amongst the few MLAs who casted their vote. In the first hour around 70 MLAs and MPs also casted their votes, official sources said.
PTI