Presidential election 2017: EC to announce polling date today

The Election Commission will announce the date of the presidential election on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_3526703” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File Image of Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi. PTI[/caption] The announcement is expected to be made by Chief Election Commissioner Naseem Zaidi and the two election commissioners at a press conference in New Delhi. President Pranab Mukherjee’s term expires on 25 July. The electoral college which elects the president is made up of 4,896 legislators — 776 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members and 4,120 MLAs. All MPs have an equal vote value of 708 while that of the MLAs depends on the population of the state. The presidential polls has a total of 11,04,546 votes with the BJP-led NDA’s tally currently standing at about 5.38 lakh votes. NDA has got crucial support of Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP helping it to cross the majority mark. BJP is also hopeful of getting the support of both the factions of the AIADMK, which is in power in Tamil Nadu and K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telugu Desam Party. Opposition parties are considering to put up a joint candidate for the elections. Recently, leaders of 17 Opposition parties met together at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence on 26 May to discuss the probable presidential candidates although they are yet to build consensus. With inputs from IANS