With the highest vote value of 208 for each of the total 403 MLAs, Uttar Pradesh will be an important State to watch out for in the Monday's Presidential election in which NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu will take on Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha.
Brij Bhushan Dubey, the returning officer for the presidential election in Uttar Pradesh, said, five MLAs of the State will cast their vote outside the state poll due to personal reasons.
Elaborating on the instructions issued for the poll, he told PTI that "All MLAs have been informed, and told as to what precautions they have to take. The MLAs will have to use a special pen of the ECI to vote for the candidate of their choice".
Voting will take place through ballot paper at Tilak Hall in the U.P. Vidhan Bhavan from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mr. Dubey said, and added three polling booths have been set up two ballot boxes, which have come from Delhi, will be sent back to the National Capital after voting is completed on July 18 itself, he said.
Counting of votes will be held in Delhi on July 21, Mr. Dubey said.
Out of the five MLAs from the State who will vote outside, four will cast their vote in Delhi, while one would do so in Thiruvananthapuram.
The five MLAs are Mukesh Choudhary (BJP MLA from Nakur in Saharanpur district), Ziaur Rahman (Samajwadi Party MLA from Kundarki in Moradabad district), Pradeep Kumar Singh (Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA from Sadabad in Hathras), Brijbhushan Rajput (BJP MLA from Charkhari in Mahoba) and Neel Ratan Patel (BJP MLA from Sevapuri in Varanasi).
According to the ECI, the value of vote of an MP this time is 700.
The value of vote of each 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.
The electoral college which elects the President through the system of proportional representation comprises elected MPs and members of state legislative assemblies.
Nominated MPs, MLAs and members of legislative councils are not entitled to vote in this election.
Elected members of Parliament and members of the state legislative assemblies will get ballot papers of different colours when they vote to elect the next President of India. While MPs will get green papers, the MLAs will get ballot papers printed in pink.
Major political parties have already announced their support for the respective candidates.
In the Opposition camp, Samajwadi Party ally Om Prakash Rajbhar's Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party has broken ranks while declaring support to NDA candidate Ms. Murmu in the presidential election
