Mamata, Yashwant set to receive jolt in Prez poll

Bhubaneswar, June 23(Reporters Today Bureau): The fate of Yashwant Sinha is virtually sealed in the presidential election and West Bengal Chief Minister & Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is set to receive one of the biggest shocks of her political life.

Yashwant Sinha has claimed that Mamata Banerjee has breathed into his political career fresh life by getting him nominated for the election to the highest office. But can he or will he contest at all after the NDA played its masterstroke by fielding Droupadi Murmu—former Jharkhand Governor, former Odisha Minister and overall a woman. The support for Murmu is increasing every hour and the chances of Sinha are dwindling every hour. Even many opposition parties, though not openly, are supporting the candidature of Murmu for the highest post. In such a situation Sinha may have to bite the dust if he continues to be in the race. Several political leaders such as Uma Bharati, have urged her former party and Cabinet colleague to withdraw from the race instead of facing political humiliation.

The support of BJD in Odisha has now been assured. It was a foregone conclusion as Murmu belonged to Odisha, a woman and a tribal leader. Navee Patnaik has been harping on the welfare and development of tribal in state and has initiated several schemes for empowerment of women. According to reports he was optimistic about Murmu’s candidature.

Former Prime Minister HD Devegowda has supported the candidature of Murmu that assures the support of the Janta Dal (S). The only three parties—Congress, TMC and Left appear undecided but in all probability they will be forced to tow the line of other parties to keep their respective tribal and women vote banks intact for future elections.

With the Odisha regional party’s support the vote share of the ruling dispensation has now crossed 50 percent mark. The NDA nominee now has around 52 percent votes (around 5,67,000 votes) out of a total of 10,86,431 votes of all electors. This includes 3,08,000 votes of MPs of the BJP and its allies. The BJD has around 32,000 votes in the electorate which is around 2.9 percent of the total.

The ruling party in Odisha has 114 MLAs in the House of 147 members in the Assembly while the BJP has 22 lawmakers. It has 12 MPs each in the Lok Sabha and nine in the Rajya Sabha. The NDA candidate is likely to get the support of some regional parties including the AIADMK, and the YSRCP for its candidate in the presidential poll. The ruling BJP’s strength in the crucial upper house of Parliament is 92 after the results of the just-concluded Rajya Sabha elections. It has a total of 301 MPs of its own in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP’s empathic win in four assembly polls, including in all-important Uttar Pradesh, where the value of the vote of each MLA is more than any other state, has only added to its overall advantage. Though the BJP and its allies in the NDA have fewer MLAs than they had during the 2017 presidential polls, their numbers of MPs have gone up since. The BJP on its own has 393 MPs, excluding four nominated Rajya Sabha members who cannot vote, out of the current strength of 776 members from both Houses, giving it a clear majority. The BJP’s numerical advantage in Parliament, which has almost half of the votes in the electoral college which also comprises all elected MLA, is further enhanced when the strength of its allies like Janata Dal (United), which has 21 MPs in total, Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, Apna Dal and several from the Northeastern states are added.

While there are 776 MPs of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, each having 700 votes, there are as many as 4,033 legislators in states with different votes who will also elect Ram Nath Kovind’s successor. The NDA has 440 MPs in its favour while the opposition UPA has around 180 MPs, besides 36 MPs of Trinamool Congress who normally support the opposition candidate. Among the states, the BJP has a maximum of 56,784 votes from Uttar Pradesh where it has 273 MLAs. Each MLA in Uttar Pradesh has a maximum vote of 208. The NDA will get its second-highest votes among states from Bihar where with 127 MLAs, it will get 21,971 votes as each legislator has 173 votes, followed by 18,375 votes from Maharashtra where it has 105 MLAs and each has 175 votes.

With 131 MLAs, the NDA will get 17,161 votes from Madhya Pradesh, 16,464 votes of 112 MLAs from Gujarat and 15,982 votes of its 122 MLAs in Karnataka. The UPA, on the other hand, has a little over 1,50,000 votes of its MPs and will get around the same number of votes from its legislators in states.