President Poll: Voting Ends, Result On Sunday

Bangalore: The seven-hour polling in Parliament House and state legislatures across India to elect the next president ended at 5 p.m. Thursday, even as there were indications that near 100 percent of the electors cast their ballots.

The elections, in which ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate Pranab Mukherjee faced direct contest from opposition-sponsored Purno Sangma, began at 10 a.m. and witnessed brisk voting through the day.

The Electoral College comprised of 4,120 assembly members and 776 members of parliament.

Among the senior political leaders who voted in the polls were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, apart from Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad.

Though Mukherjee, who has served as defence, foreign and finance minister in the UPA government since 2004, is tipped to win the polls hands down, the final results will be known after counting which is scheduled for Sunday.

Sangma's camp is likely to challenge the polls in the Supreme Court over the issue of office of profit that they had raised against Mukherjee at the time of filing of nominations.

Amongst the other early voters were Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar.

From the Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Anurag Thakur, Yashodhara Raje, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders B Mahtab, Baijayant Panda, P K Patsani, were among the early voters.

Soon after, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and YSR Congress supreme Jaganmohan Reddy also cast their vote. Also, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O' Brien became the first Anglo-Indian to vote in a presidential election.

The voting for the next President of the country also witnessed its share of drama.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, by mistake, voted for Sangma, following which he was granted the permission to cast his vote once again. He then voted for the Pranab, to whom he had declared his support in June itself.

(With agency inputs)