TS Assembly set for Presidential Election today

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Legislature, for the first time, is going to witness a historic event of Presidential Election as the Election Commission has scheduled to conduct it on July 17, i.e, Monday from 10 am to 5 pm.

The Legislature Secretariat officials have made adequate arrangements for the crucial polling in the conference hall and police officials cordoned off the premises with tight security. The Presidential election was necessitated as the incumbent Pranab Mukherjee’s term is expiring on July 24. While the MLAs would get white ballot papers to exercise their franchise, the MPs can do so by using pink ballot paper, according to information.

Assembly Speaker S Madhusudana Chary, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Ministers and other MLAs include 119 legislators of various political parties. They will exercise their franchise to elect the new President of India and the counting of votes will take place in Parliament House on July 20. Telangana legislature has a total of 119 MLAs, including TRS 90, Congress 13, MIM seven, BJP five, TTDP three and CPM one will participate in the voting.

It is said that the Chief Minister and Ministers will enter the Assembly premises from the Gate No 1 as usual, and other MLAs will enter the House through second gate. According to the information, only voters will be allowed to enter the Hall of Polling station and cast their votes using separate pen and ballot paper issued by the Election Authorities and come out. The MPs, who ought to vote either at Parliament or in Assembly with prior intimation are to make use of Pink ballot paper and MLAs are to use white paper.

It is pertinent to note that BJP-led NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and Congress-led UPA candidate Meira Kumar are in the fray for the crucial Presidential poll slated to be held on July 17. MPs of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and MLAs of all the States are voters in the Presidential election. While the Upper House has 233 members, the Lower House in the Parliament has 543 Members and 4,120 MLAs representing all the States of the Electoral College to elect the new President. The present incumbent Pranab Mukherjee is to demit his office as his term will be expiring on July 24. As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the new President will assume charge on July 25.