Swift polling in AP in Presidential election

The Congress has no presence in AP.As such, all votes from AP are in favour of Murmu.In the 2017 presidential election, the Congress had four Rajya Sabha members who supported the then opposition candidate. The YSRC, then in opposition, also voted for the NDA candidate.

Amaravati, July 18 (PTI): As many as 162 out of 175 MLAs in Andhra Pradesh exercised their franchise in the Presidential election till 1.30 pm here on Monday.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was the first to cast his vote when voting began at 10 am.

Speaker Tammineni Sitarama, ministers and MLAs followed the Chief Minister in exercising their franchise.

Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu led his Telugu Desam Party legislators in voting at 12 noon in the polling booth in the Assembly Committee Hall.

Two Telugu Desam MLAs, Nandamuri Balakrishna and Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, were among the notable absentees as they were said to be on a foreign visit.

Andhra Pradesh is probably the only state where the ruling and the opposition parties are supporting the NDA’s presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu.

This is also the first time that the rival parties are on one side in a presidential election.

The YSRC has 31 MPs (nine in Rajya Sabha and 22 in Lok Sabha) and 151 MLAs in the state Assembly.

The TDP has one member in Rajya Sabha, three members in Lok Sabha besides 23 MLAs (including three rebels).

The BJP has one MP in Rajya Sabha. Though technically the Jana Sena has one MLA, he has been sailing with the YSRC since his election in 2019. The Congress has no presence in AP.

As such, all votes from AP are in favour of Murmu.

In the 2017 presidential election, the Congress had four Rajya Sabha members who supported the then opposition candidate. As the TDP was then part of the NDA, it voted for the latter’s nominee, along with the alliance partner BJP. The YSRC, then in opposition, also voted for the NDA candidate.