Accolades to Murmu

New Delhi: The NDA's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Thursday crossed the crucial 50 per cent mark after the third round of counting to emerge victorious in the poll over her rival Yashwant Sinha.

An official announcement on her win is expected after all votes are counted but she has already got 5,77,777 votes, which is more than the halfway mark of the total valid votes cast in the election on July 18. Returning Officer P C Mody announced that Murmu has already received over 53 per cent of the total valid votes. Ballots from 10 states and Union territories are being still counted. Sources said 17 MPs from opposition parties have cross-voted in her support.

All MLAs from Andhra Pradesh voted in Murmu's favour, while in Arunachal Pradesh she got votes of all legislators except for four. Officials said the NDA candidate received two-thirds of the votes in all the three rounds of counting. So far, votes of 20 states and those cast by MPs have been counted.

Votes of 10 more states and union territories are being counted as of now. Conceding defeat, Opposition candidate Sinha congratulated Murmu and said that every Indian hopes that as the 15th President she functions as the "custodian of the Constitution" without fear or favour.

In a statement, Sinha thanked the leaders of the Opposition parties for choosing him as their consensus candidate in this election. "I also thank all members of the Electoral College who voted for me. I accepted the offer of Opposition parties solely guided by the philosophy of Karma Yoga preached by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita - 'Do your duty without expectation of the fruits thereof'," Sinha said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J P Nadda visited Murmu's residence here to congratulate her. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated Murmu on her "impressive" win and asserted that her victory is proof of India democracy's strength.

The Election Commission is likely to issue 'certificate of election' to the winning candidate on Friday. Among the states where votes were counted include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisharh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Odisha. At 64, the woman who will be India's 15th president, taking over from Ram Nath Kovind, will also be the youngest and India's first president to be born after Independence. She will be sworn in on July 25.