Shawdesh desk;

The voting process for election of India’s next President ended this afternoon as lawmakers of both the houses and legislative assemblies cast their votes for the country’s 15th President.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu is contesting the polls against opposition’s nominee and former union minister Yashwant Sinha.

Murmu, a tribal women from Jharkhand, appears set for a comfortable win as she had already received support from a number of regional parties including Shiv Sena, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Biju Janata Dal, Shiromani Akali Dal, JMM and YSR Congress Party, according to media reports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former PM Manmohan Singh, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and most of the MPs cast their votes at the parliament house this morning.

Besides, Chief Ministers of different states including Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Yogi Adityanath, Naneev Patnaik, MK Stalin and Bhupendra Patel cast their votes at their respective state assemblies.

The votes of presidential polls will be counted on July 21 and the new president will be sworn in on July 26, a day after incumbent Ram Nath Kovind steps down after a five-year tenure.

The president of India is elected indirectly through an electoral college, which comprises members of parliament of both houses and members of legislative assemblies of all states and union territories. The nominated members are unable to vote.

The electoral college for the presidential election comprises 543 Lok Sabha, 233 Rajya Sabha and 4,033 members of legislative assemblies in the states.

The total value of the parliamentarians’ votes is 5,43,200, and that of assembly members 5,43,231, totalling 1086431.