Murmu vs Sinha: The math behind Presidential polls

CHENNAI: Ruling NDA's Droupadi Murmu and Opposition's Yashwant Sinha are pitted against each other in the contest, with voters clearly stacked in favour of Murmu, who, if elected, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post in the country.

NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu crosses the 50% mark of total valid votes at the end of the third round of counting; set to become the President of the country.

Kovind's tenure is ending on July 24 and the new president will take oath on July 25.

With ballot boxes from all states having reached the Parliament House, poll officials are ready for the counting in room number 63, the strongroom of Parliament where the boxes are guarded behind a round the clock security.

How does the poll take place?

According to Article 54 of the Constitution of India, the President is elected by members of the Electoral College consisting of

1) elected members of both houses of Parliament

2) elected members of Legislative Assemblies of all States, including the National capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry UT.

According to the Election Commission of India, the total value of votes for MLAs for the 16th Presidential election is 5,43,231 while the total value of votes for MPs is 5,43,200 taking the total value of the vote of electors to 10,86,431. Any candidate who gets more than 50% of the value of votes becomes the next President of India.

The value of a vote for every MP is 700 and is uniform across the country. However,the value of a vote of each MLA varies depending on the State's population. For example, the value of a vote of each MLA from UP is 208 while the value of each MLA vote from Sikkim is just 7.

Value of an MP vote = The sum of vote value of elected members of all the State Legislative Assemblies / The sum of elected members of both the houses of parliament.

Value of an MLA vote = Total population of the state or union territory / Total number of elected members of the State Legislative Assembly * 1000