Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, the presidential candidate backed by the United Progressive Alliance, UPA has become the 13th President of India. The results of presidential election (which was conducted on July 19) were declared on July 22. He would sworn in as the President of India on July 23. Mr. Pranab has secured as many as 7,13,763 vote value while his opponent PA Sangma (backed by BP) managed to draw just 2,57,466 vote value.

According to the reports, 748 MP s voted in the presidential election out of which 527 MP s voted for Mr. Mukherjee while 206 for PA Sangma. Notably, 15 votes were declared invalid by the Election Commission. It has to be mentioned here that in Karnataka Pranab Mukherjee got 117 votes (Which means majority votes as there are 224 MLA s in Karnataka assembly). So, it was evident that cross voting took place in Karnataka. It is known that BJP is runing a government in Karnataka. Political observers are eager as to what action BJP high command would take against the MLA s who voted for Pranab.

Pranab Mukherjee got maximum number of MLA votes from Andhra Pradesh assembly. As many as 182 MLAs voted for Mr. Mukherjee. Mr. Sangma, on the other hand, got three votes from Andhra Pradesh while five were termed invalid. Pranab Mukerjee finally marked his name in bold letters in Indian politics by becoming the President of India.

(AW Phani)