BJP president JP Nadda seeks Sukhbir Badal's support for Droupadi Murmu

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/chandigarh, June 30

BJP president JP Nadda on Thursday reached out to former ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for support to the ruling NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu in the July 18 election amid strong signals of the JD(S) also set to back the tribal leader.

Nadda dialled SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, who is learnt to have said that he would get back on the matter after consulting party leaders. The SAD will hold a meeting in Chandigarh tomorrow to discuss the issue.

Poll math

• Electoral College has 776 MPs, 4,033 MLAs
• Total vote value 10,86,431 (5,43,200 of MPs and 5,43,231 of MLAs)
• Value of one MP vote is 700
• MLA vote value is different for different states
• UP has the highest MLA vote value (208), followed by Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand (176), Maharashtra (175)
• Sikkim has the lowest MLA vote value of 7

The Akalis had quit the NDA over the controversial farm laws, which were eventually withdrawn in November last year. The party has two Lok Sabha MPs —Sukhbir and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal — and three MLAs in the Punjab Assembly. Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody today conducted scrutiny of the 115 nominations received for the presidential election. He said nominations of only two candidates — Murmu and Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha — were valid.

“The process of filing of nomination papers commenced on June 15 and concluded on June 29. During the period, 115 nomination papers were received. Of these, 28 pertaining to 26 candidates were rejected at the time of presentation itself, under section 5B(4) of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Act, 1952, as they were not accompanied by a certified copy of the electoral roll," Mody said.

He said the remaining 87 nomination papers pertaining to 72 candidates were taken up for scrutiny today.

“Out the 87 papers, 79 were rejected during the course of the scrutiny under section 5B(1)(a) [want of requisite number of proposers and seconders] and due to other reasons,” said Mody.

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