The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s Ram Nath Kovind is leading

The counting of votes to determine the next president of India began at 11 am at Parliament on Thursday. The result is expected to be declared by 5 pm.

A total of 4,896 elected representatives voted in the election on Monday, choosing between Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s Ram Nath Kovind and the Opposition’s candidate Meira Kumar. The ballots are being counted under the supervision of Returning Officer Anoop Mishra.

The votes cast in Parliament are being counted first. The ballot boxes brought to Delhi from states will then be opened in alphabetical order. There will be eight rounds of counting, and results will be announced after every round.

The election held through a secret ballot at 32 polling stations saw nearly 99% of the members of the electoral college cast their votes. Mishra had said this was the highest ever turnout to vote to elect the country’s next president.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel had said soon after voting began that he was confident Kovind would win the presidential polls. This came as a surprise because the NCP had supported the Opposition’s candidate, Meira Kumar in the election.

‘Dalit versus Dalit’

Both Kovind and Kumar are Dalit. This means that India will have its second Dalit president, after KR Narayanan, who was India’s head of state 1997 and 2002.

Kumar, a five-time MP, was elected unopposed as the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha in 2009. She is the daughter of Dalit leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram. Kovind, a former governor of Bihar, has been a Supreme Court lawyer and was president of the BJP’s SC/ST Morcha from 1998 to 2002.