Dehradun, 18 Jul: A mock polling exercise was carried out today in preparation for the Presidential election which is scheduled to be held at the Vidhan Sabha campus here tomorrow. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was also present on this occasion along with Haridwar MLA and BJP State President Madan Kaushik. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prem Chand Aggarwal conducted the proceedings. Two Independent MLAs, Sanjay Dobhal of Yamunotri (Uttarkashi) and Umesh Kumar of Khanpur (Haridwar) were also present after having declared support to the NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu.
The BJP has claimed that two BSP MLAs, Mohammed Shehzad (Laksar) and Sarwat Kareem Ansari, too, would vote in favour of Murmu. Besides the MLAs, MPs from Uttarakhand may also exercise their franchise in Dehradun if present here, otherwise they can exercise their franchise at the Sansad Bhawan in New Delhi.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today called on every MLA irrespective of political affiliation to vote as per his or her inner conscience. Congress MLAs are expected to vote in favour of the Opposition candidate, Yashwant Sinha.
The mock exercise began at the BJP Headquarters at 10 a.m. The mock poll is indicative of how seriously the BJP is taking the presidential election, even though its candidate is expected to romp through due to sharp divisions within the opposition ranks across the country. Sinha, it may b recalled, was declared as the Opposition candidate by TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee.
