Kovind To Campaign In Meghalaya On Friday For Presidential Election:- To seek support for his candidature, NDA’s Presidential candidate, Ram Nath Kovind will arrive in the Congress-ruled State of Meghalaya on Friday.
Kovind’s visit to Meghalaya is evidential, in the wake of his rival candidate Meira Kumar. She claimed that “the United Democratic Party (UDP), a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, has sworn to support her in the presidential elections”. But UDP Chief Donkupar Roy, who is also Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, refused assuring support to the opposition-backed Congress candidate and said that “it is better to go by the winner”.
Kovind would address Meghalaya legislators at the Orchid Lake Resort in Umiam in Ri-Bhoi district. He is the former Governor of Bihar who was nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party as the ruling alliance’s presidential nominee. The Opposition, National People’s Party had announced its support too to Kovind. The party, which is an ally of the BJP-led NDA government has has two members in in the 60-member house.
“We will also attend Kovind’s meeting tomorrow. The legislature party of UDP will be meeting soon and decide accordingly,” Roy told a leading news channel.
In the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly, the UDP has eight legislators. The State’s People’s Democratic Party supremo Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said that “his party would be meeting soon to take a decision. The party has four legislators.” The ruling Meghalaya United Alliance has 44 members - 30 Congress, two Nationalist Congress Party, 11 Independents and one of the North East Socialist Democratic Party. Two other Independents are in the opposition.
The Congress, however, may lose the precious vote of one suspended Congress legislator P.N. Syiem during the presidential poll. From the 60 legislators of the Meghalaya assembly and three members of Parliament (two Lok Sabha members and one Rajya Sabha member), the total value of the votes under the presidential election system will be 3,144. While for 60 legislators, the vote value is 1,020, and that of three parliamentarians - Conrad Sangma (NPP), Vincent Pala and Wansuk Syiem (both from Congress) - is 2,124. Due to the small population size, the value of the vote of an individual MLA from Meghalaya is 17 each, while that of an MP is 708 each, which is the same all over the country.
SUPRAJA
