88.5 pc MPs, 91 pc MLAs vote to elect 13th President

New Delhi, Jul 19: The voting in the 13th Presidential elections was peaceful with 88.5 per cent of MPs and 91 per cent of MLAs belonging to the electoral college exercising their franchise to decide the fate of UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil and NDA- supported independent candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

The polling was smooth and peaceful and there was no complaint from any quarters, Lok Sabha Secretary General and Returning Officer P D T Achary told reporters here.

Though the total strength of MPs was 776, the effective strength was 770, he said and added that of these 59 MPs opted to vote in states, so 711 MPs were supposed to cast their vote in Parliament House. Of these 711 MPs, 636 cast votes in Parliament House polling centres while 46 MPs cast vote in states taking the total figure to 682 MPs which was 88.5 per cent of the total, Mr Achary said.

Moreover, nine MLAs also cast their votes in Parliament House.

They belonged to Asom, Bihar, Meghalayaa, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Orissa and West Bengal.

Eight states reported 100 per cent polling. They were Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, he said.

Of the total 4,120 MLAs, 3755 MLAs, voted making the figure 91 per cent.

Two jailed MPs and one imprisoned MLA also cast their vote. These MPs were Babubhai Katara of BJP and Pappu Yadav of Lok Janshakti Party who came from Tihar Jail to cast his vote while Joginder Pal Jain, a jailed MLA from Punjab, also exercised his franchise, Mr Achary informed. Despite call for abstaining by the United Nationalist Progressive Alliance, three Samajwadi Party MPs and five AIADMK MPs, two MPs from MDMK of Mr Vaiko and one of Telangana Rashtriya Samiti voted in Parliament House. The Samajwadi Party MPs were Beniprasad Verma, Munnawar Hussain and Raj Babbar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi said.

Apart from the abstaining MPs, five MPs did not turn up to vote, he added.

Giving details of polling in various states Mr Achary said, that in Andhra Pradesh of the 294 MLAs, 229 voted, In Arunachal Pradesh of the 60 MLAs, 59 voted, while in Asom out of 126 MLAs, 115 cast their vote. In Bihar of 243 MLAs, 234 exercised their franchise, in Chhatisgarh of the 89 MLAs out of total 90 MLAs voted while in Goa all 40 MLAs voted. The scenario was same in Gujarat where all 182 MLAs cast their vote while in Haryana, 81 MLAs out of 90 MLAs voted.

In Himachal Pradesh due to one vacancy, 67 MLAs are there and all of them voted, he said while in Jammu and Kashmir 85 out of 87 MLAs exercised their franchise. In Jharkhand, 75 MLAs of the total 81 cast their vote while in Karnataka, 165 MLAs of 224 MLAs exercised their franchise. In Kerala of the 140 MLAs, 137 MLAs cast their vote, in Madhya Pradesh of the 230 MLAs, 226 voted, in Maharashtra of 288 MLAs 286 MLAs voted while in Manipur all 60 MLAs voted, he informed.

Mr Achary said voting was low in Meghalaya where 36 MLAs of total 60MLAs cast their vote, in Mizoram, where 15 MLAs of total 40 MLAsexercised their franchise while in Nagaland, 57 MLAs of 60 voted. InOrissa 145 MLAs of 147 MLAs voted, in Punjab, 109 MLAs out of 117 MLAsvoted while in Rajasthan, which is the home state of Mr Shekhawat, all200 MLAs exercised their franchise.

In Sikkim, all 32 MLAs voted, in Tamil Nadu, 231 MLAs of 234 MLAsvoted, in Tripura 58 MLAs of 60 exercised their franchise while inUttrakhand, 68 MLAs of 70 cast their vote.

The most populous state of Uttar Pradesh witnessed 305 MLAs of the403 MLAs casting their votes while in West Bengal 260 MLAs of 294 MLAsexercised their franchise. In Delhi, 69 MLAs of 70 voted while inPuducherry, all 30 MLAs voted, he added.

UNI