Presidential elections

With the term of President Ram Nath Kovind coming to an end, the election of 16th President of India is set to begin. Presidential elections may have not produced tinnitus as the general elections, but they surely have had their own share of close contests, massive debates, and upsets. The electoral college for the presidential elections has 4,809 members, which includes 233 Rajya Sabha and 543 Lok Sabha members, and 4,033 MLAs of State Assemblies. The voting is to be conducted on July 18, with the results to be out on July 21. The total value of the votes that will be up for grabs is 10,86,431. The BJP-led NDA’s tally is 5,25,706, around 20,000 votes short of the majority mark. The elections are being conducted, when the country is in a grip of religious dissemination and other economic challenges. Albeit, the outcome can be envisaged, the election will involve many controversies and layers of symbolism. The BJP sent a lucid message, by nominating Kovind as the President, a Dalit from the heartland. It will undoubtedly come up with another strategy this time too, considering the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP- led government has nominated Droupadi Murmu for the position. Ms. Murmu will be facing off against the former finance minister in the Vajpayee government, Yashwant Sinha in the upcoming polls. She is expected to win as she managed to garner support from NDA and other parties like YSCRP, and the BJD. She is a former Jharkhand Governor, a two-term MLA from Odisha, and served as minister in the BJP-BJD coalition government in the state between 2000-2004. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) Chief, TMC leader, and West Bengal CM, Mamta Banerjee lead the opposition coalition, though no official statement has been made. AAP leader and Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal, is equally opposed to the congress. It will be a Herculean task for the opposition to frame a coherent strategy.