Presidential Election 2017: Lalu Prasad Yadav to support Opposition candidate

Patna: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday said his party will go with other opposition parties in their choice for a presidential candidate. [caption id=“attachment_3535277” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. PTI[/caption] “We will go with the decision of opposition parties, which will meet in New Delhi on Thursday,” he said. Lalu brushed aside questions on the JD(U) extending support to NDA’s pick for the president’s post, former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind. The RJD supremo had earlier flayed the NDA for not consulting opposition parties and evolve a consensus on the presidential election. Congress has refused support to Kovind’s candidature and said the Opposition will put up its own presidential candidate. However, the numbers seem to be in favour of Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA nominee for the post of the President of India. With the BJD, a faction of the AIADMK, the YSR Congress and the TRS extending support, the prospects of sending Kovind to the Rashtrapati Bhavan have brightened. The total strength of the electoral college which votes to elect the president comprises all elected MPs and members of legislative Assemblies of all states and Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry. The total comes to 10,98,903 votes with each MP carrying a vote value of 708. The vote weight of an MLA depends on the population of the state he or she represents.A candidate needs 50 percent plus votes to win the poll. Halfway mark comes at 5,49,452.