Democracy at work: Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, left, Speaker V. Vaithilingam, former Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, AIADMK MLA A. Anbalagan, DMK MLA R. Siva, and V. Ramachandran, independent MLA, casting their vote in the presidential poll in Puducherry on Monday. | Photo Credit: T_Singaravelou more-in While 30 MLAs voted in the polling booth inside the Legislative Assembly here, two members representing Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha exercised their franchise in Parliament in the presidential poll to choose between NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and UPA nominee Meira Kumar on Monday. Although polling officially commenced at 9 a.m., the first vote was cast a little after 10 a.m. by A. Anbalagan, MLA of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma), which had extended support to NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind. He was followed by Speaker V. Vaithilingam, All India N.R. Congress member P.R.N. Thirumurugan and three other AIADMK members. Voters trickle in Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, who arrived in the Assembly premises around 10 a.m., waited for his ministerial colleagues and Congress legislators to arrive. They along with two Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members voted at around 11 a.m. A few minutes after Congress-DMK members cast their vote, V. Ramachandran (Independent), who had extended support to United Progressive Alliance’s nominee Meira Kumar, exercised his vote. He was guided to the polling booth by Chief Minister and Government whip R.K.R. Anantharaman. Around 12.30 p.m., AINRC chief and former Chief Minister N. Rangasamy along with six other members, cast their votes marking the winding up of voting process in the Union Territory. Lok Sabha member R. Radhakrishnan representing AINRC and Member of Rajya Sabha N. Gokulakrishnan belonging to AIADMK exercised their franchise in Parliament. K. Lakshminarayanan, Anbalagan and R. Bakthavalchalam were the polling agents for Congress, the AIADMK and the AINRC respectively. Secret ballot The voting took place by means of secret ballot through single transferable vote. The value of the vote of each legislator and Member of Parliament was based on the population of the State or the Union Territory he or she belonged. The value of vote of a legislator was put at 16 and that of a MP at 708. Although the Congress-DMK-Independent combine has the maximum number of legislators (18), the presence of two MPs in the rival camp would help Mr. Kovind gather more votes from the Union Territory. The polled votes were sealed at 5 p.m. and taken to Chennai to be sent to New Delhi on Tuesday. Shortly after casting his vote, Mr. Narayanasamy told reporters that if elected representatives across the country voted according to their conscience, the UPA nominee would become the next President.

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