Presidential elections: Congress MLA ditches Yashwant Sinha to vote for NDA's Droupadi Murmu, says 'listened to my heart'

As the voting for presidential elections is underway, in a twist, one of the Congress MLAs from Odisha ditched opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha but voted for NDA's Droupadi Murmu.

Voting for the election in which National Democratic Alliance's candidate Droupadi Murmu is pitted against joint opposition pick Yashwant Sinha began on Monday morning with Prime Minister Modi being the first to cast his vote.

Odisha Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim after voting for Droupadi Murmu said, "I have voted for NDA's Presidential candidate."

"It's my personal decision as I've listened to my heart which guided me to do something for the soil and that's why voted for her," the MLA added.

"I am a Congress MLA but I have voted for NDA's Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. It's my personal decision as I've listened to my heart which guided me to do something for the soil and that's why voted for her," Moquim was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs are entitled to vote in the election, but nominated MPs and MLAs, and members of Legislative Councils are not.

Besides Room number 63 on the first floor of Parliament House, which has been converted into a polling station, voting is simultaneously taking place at various state assemblies.

In the national capital, voting is also underway at the Delhi legislative assembly.

Counting of votes will be held on July 21.

The system of secret ballot is followed in the presidential election, and parties cannot issue whips to their MPs and MLAs with regard to voting.

The value of the vote of a Member of Parliament has gone down to 700 from 708 in this presidential poll due to the absence of a legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.

The value of vote of an MLA varies in different states. In Uttar Pradesh, the value of vote of each MLA stands at 208, followed by 176 in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, it is 175. In Sikkim, the value of vote per MLA is seven, while it is nine in Nagaland and eight in Mizoram.

Seeking to maintain secrecy of voting, the EC has issued a specially designed pen with violet ink to enable voters mark their ballot papers in the presidential poll.