Presidential elections 2017

33 observers have been appointed by the EC to oversee the conduct of election. While two observers will be present in the Parliament House, one each will be deployed in the respective state assemblies.

It asks them to use only EC-issued pen and warns that no whip or directive can be issued to party members to vote in favour of any candidate. Since it is a secret ballot, the voters should not disclose whom they have voted for. Green-coloured ballot papers will be there for members of Parliament and pink for MLAs who vote in the election.

Following the ink controversy in the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana last year, the Election Commission has decided to use special pens for the electors to mark their votes in the presidential and vice presidential polls. Specially serial-numbered pens with violet ink have been supplied by the Election Commission to ensure that only the writing instrument issued by it is used by voters to mark their votes.

The Samajwadi Party appears divided on the eve of the presidential election with camps led by its patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and party chief Akhilesh Yadav all set to vote for rival candidates, triggering possibility of cross-voting.

Interestingly, of the total number of MPs and MLAs, 33% members have declared criminal cases against themselves in a self-sworn affidavit filed with the ECI before their most recent elections, said an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) statement. "34% of Lok Sabha MPs, 19% of Rajya Sabha MPs and 33% of MLAs (all state assemblies/ UTs) analysed have declared criminal cases against themselves," added the ADR statement.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath & deputy CM K P Maurya, who are yet to resign from Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, to cast their vote for Presidential polls in UP assembly today.

An analysis of the electoral college by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows only 451 of the 4,852 MPs/MLAs are women. Among MPs, Lok Sabha has 65 women MPs, that is, only 12% of the total strength is female. In the Rajya Sabha, it's even lower at only 10 percent: that is, of the total 1.6 lakh votes that will be cast, only a little over 16,000 will be from the 23 women MPs in the house.

The new President is likely to take charge after July 25.