Presidential Election 2017 Results LIVE: Counting of votes begins; Kovind has an edge in Presidentia

On July 17, of the total 4,880 valid voters — 4,109 members of legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and 771 elected members of Parliament (MPs) — 99.49 per cent cast their vote to elect the next President of India. In the fray were the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA's) candidate Ram Nath Kovind, and the Opposition candidate Meira Kumar.

The counting of votes is scheduled to begin at 11 am on Thursday, July 20, but it is believed that Kovind has an edge over Kumar. However, should he win, the margin of his victory will be interesting to note, given that there were reports of many instances where voters from Opposition parties also voting for Kovind in the Presidential elections 2017..

"The voting was close to 99 per cent. I think this would perhaps be the highest-ever percentage," Anoop Mishra, Lok Sabha, secretary general and returning officer for the election, had said on Monday.

Mishra had said while the sanctioned strength of the Lok Sabha (LS) and the Rajya Sabha (RS) is 776 (543 and 233), 771 MPs were eligible to cast their votes. There are two vacancies each in the LS and the RS, while one BJP MP, Chhedi Paswan, did not have voting rights following a judicial pronouncement.

Of the total 771 MPs who are entitled to vote, 768, or 99.61 per cent, cast their votes. Likewise, of the 4,109 MLAs entitled to vote, 4,083 or 99.37 per cent cast their votes, officials said.

11:21 AMResult will be declared by 5 pm11:20 AMThere will be eight rounds of counting, and announcements will be made after every round.11:11 AMHere are the visuals of counting of votes:

33mANI? @ANI_news#FLASH: Counting of votes for #PresidentialPoll2017 begins. pic.twitter.com/WTTXwqMxxF FollowANI? @ANI_news#Visuals Counting of votes for #PresidentialPoll2017 begins in Parliament pic.twitter.com/ffzK0u34CB11:08 AM - 20 Jul 2017View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter 9 9 Retweets 13 13 likesTwitter Ads info and privacy11:07 AMCounting of votes for Presidential election 2017 has begun.11:05 AMKovind’s sister-in-law Vidyavati has been fasting since 19 July for his victory. She is the wife of Shiv Balak, Kovind’s brother.11:03 AMRam Nath Kovind is set to win the election by a 70 per cent margin11:02 AMBallot boxes from 29 state capitals and the union territory of Puducherry have reached Parliament House amid tight security.11:01 AMBoth Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar are from the Dalit community and have canvassed hard by visiting states to seek support of legislators.10:58 AMThe candidate who secures at least one vote more than 50 per cent of the total votes will enter into the Rashtrapati Bhavan.10:56 AMPresident Pranab Mukherjee will demit the office on July 25.

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