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Pratibha is
the first woman President of India
New Delhi, July 21: UPA-Left
candidate Pratibha Patil has won the Presidential elections. She has become
the first woman President of India. Patil has won by the margin of over
3 lakh votes.
NEW DELHI: Ruling alliance
nominee Pratibha Patil was heading for a huge victory, winning more than
the expected votes even in opposition ruled states as counting for the
presidential poll in seven states was over till Saturday afternoon.
In the seven states for which
the votes of legislators are being counted, Patil won 67,7710 votes leaving
her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an independent backed
by the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with just 35,670
votes.
The votes of MPs will be
taken up late afternoon.
The electoral college of
MPs and MLAs constitute 1.09 million votes. Once elected, Patil will be
the country's 13th president and the first woman head of the state.
According to early information,
Patil has won more votes than her Congress party expected. She is supported
by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Left and the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP).
It was a sweep for Patil
in Andhra Pradesh, where 223 MLAs voted for her with just two for Shekhawat,
in Arunachal Pradesh it was 58 for her and one for Shekhawat, in Assam,
she got 92 and Shekhawat 20 (four votes were invalid), in Delhi (50-19)
and in Goa (25-14).
However, Shekhawat got more
votes in Bihar - 145 - to Patil's 89, Chhattisgarh (51-37) and in Gujarat
(123-57).
However, Patil managed unexpected
support from MLAs of NDA-ruled Bihar and Gujarat, where at least 15 BJP
MLAs claimed to have cross-voted for her.
The counting began at 11
a.m. in Room No. 62 of parliament building where 692 MPs registered their
votes Thursday.
The ballot boxes from the
30 assembly houses across the country have been brought to the national
capital for counting. According to parliament sources, the Election Commission
is doing the counting according to alphabetical order of the states.
While Patil is expected to
get more than 600,000 votes from the electoral college, Shekhawat may get
around 300,000.
The new president, to succeed
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, will be sworn in on July 25.
Pratibha
Patil Profile...
Cross-voting
In Assam, Patil polled 92
votes while Shekhawat got 20. Four votes in this state were declared invalid.
The value of an MLA's vote in Assam is 116.
There was cross-voting,
apparently by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), in favour of Patil in Congress-ruled
Assam, as the UPA-Left was expecting only 86 votes but got 92.
Fifteen of the 24 AGP legislators
voted in the poll, defying the party's decision to abstain.
In Delhi, Patil bagged 50
of the 69 votes polled, while Shekhawat got 19 BJP votes. One BJP MLA did
not vote and the value of a vote in Delhi is 58.
In Bihar, where a JD(U)-BJP
coalition is in power, Shekhawat bagged 145 votes while Patil received
89. Two votes were found to be invalid. The value of each MLA's vote in
the state is 173.
Shekhawat got 51 votes in
BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, while Patil bagged 37. The value of each MLA's
vote in this state is 129.
In Goa, where the Congress
is in power, Patil has won 25 votes while Shekhawat got 14. The value of
a vote in the coastal state is 20.
In BJP-ruled Gujarat, Shekhawat
bagged 123 votes while his opponent Patil got 57 votes. Two votes were
found invalid. The value of vote in Gujarat is 147. There was cross-voting
in the state in Patil's favour as the BJP has 127 MLAs.
A rebel BJP MLA, who did
not want to be identified, had claimed on polling day that some MLAs voted
for Patil to register their protest against Chief Minister Narendra Modi's
style of functioning.
In Congress-ruled Haryana,
Patil received 74 votes while Shekhawat got seven. A vote has a value of
112 in Haryana.
In Jammu and Kashmir, where
a PDP-Congress coalition is in power, Patil received 77 votes while Shekhawat
got just six. Two votes were found invalid. The value of a vote in J&K
is 72.
In Jharkhand, Patil bagged
49 votes while Shekhawat got 28. Two votes were found to be invalid. The
value of an MLA's vote in the state is 176.
In Karnataka, where a JD(S)-BJP
coalition is in power, Patil and Shekhawat got almost the same number of
votes. The UPA-Left candidate got 83 votes, while Shekhawat bagged 82.
The value of a vote in this southern state is 131.
In Left-ruled Kerala, Shekhawat
drew a blank as Patil bagged 132 of 137 votes polled. Five votes were found
invalid. Each MLA's vote in the coastal state has a value of 152.
In Madhya Pradesh, where
the BJP is in power, Shekhawat got 162 votes while the former Rajasthan
governor received 53. In all, 11 votes were found invalid in the state.
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