The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind won the presidential election, reports said on Thursday. He took a massive lead over the Opposition’s nominee Meira Kumar during counting.

Counting began at 11 am.

The votes cast in Parliament were 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. Mishra is supervising the process as the ballots are being opened.

A total of 4,896 elected representatives had voted in the election on Monday.