DEHRADUN: A total of 71 MLAs — 70 from Uttarakhand and an RJD legislator from Bihar — cast their vote in the state assembly on Monday for the presidential elections, in which BJP’s Ram Nath Kovind is pitted against UPA’s Meira Kumar. Of the 70 MLAs who exercised their franchise on the day, 57 are from the BJP, 11 from the Congress and two are Independents.Uttarakhand has five Lok Sabha MPs, all from the BJP, and three Rajya Sabha MPs, who are from the Congress. All the MPs from the hill state voted in Delhi.Voting started in the state assembly at 10am and state tourism minister Satpal Maharaj was the first from Uttarakhand to cast his vote and agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal was the last as he was attending another event on Monday morning.RJD’s Birendra Kumar Sinha, who is an MLA from Obra constituency and was in Dehradun for his son’s admission in an academic institute, after permission from the Election Commission of India voted in the Uttarakhand assembly.Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said, “We are confident of a win and our candidate is most suited to hold the post.” He added that the party had requested the two Independent MLAs — Pritam Singh Panwar from Dhanaulti and Ram Singh Khaira from Bhimtal — to support the BJP and “they gave their consent”.The total value of all Lok Sabha MPs, Rajya Sabha MPs and legislators of Uttarakhand is 10,144 votes. While a vote of an MLA is worth 64, the weightage of an Uttarakhand MP is 708 each. On the basis of the present numbers, BJP candidate Kovind is likely to get 7,316 votes — 3,540 of MPs and 3,776 of MLAs — from Uttarakhand and Meira Kumar is expected to get 2,828 votes — 704 of MLAs and 2,124 of the three Rajya Sabha MPs.Leader of opposition in the state assembly Indira Hridayesh said, “BJP is contesting the election on the number of votes and we are fighting on the basis of principles and values.” She asserted that, coming from a political background, Meira Kumar was the “perfect” choice for President.“Khaira was a former Congress leader and on being denied ticket contested as Independent and won, so his support for BJP was expected. As for Panwar, he supports the party that is in power. From 2012 to 2017, he was with the Congress and now when BJP is in power, he is with them,” Hridayesh added.Tourism minister Satpal Maharaj said that the UPA candidate was nowhere in the race. “The UPA should have supported BJP’s Kovind. It will be a landslide victory for Kovind,” he said.Nikhunj Kishore Sundre, who was appointed the observer by the EC, kept an eye on the polling in Uttarakhand. Secretary of the Uttarakhand assembly Jagdish Chandra performed the duty of returning officer.After polling, RJD MLA Birendra Kumar Sinha said, “I am in Uttarakhand for my son’s admission, therefore I requested an opportunity to cast my vote in Dehradun.”

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