Counting of votes for presidential election begins; results expected by the evening

New Delhi: Counting of votes for the presidential election started here on Thursday to decide on incumbent Ram Nath Kovind's successor.

The process of counting the votes started at 11 am in room number 63 in Parliament House, where the ballot boxes brought from all the state assemblies were kept.

National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Droupadi Murmu and Opposition's Yashwant Sinha are in the fray to become the country's 15th president.

While the counting of votes of the members of both houses of Parliament will begin first, those of the states will be counted in the alphabetical order, sources said.

The odds are clearly stacked in favour of Murmu, who, if elected, will be the first woman from the tribal community to occupy the country's top constitutional post.

Kovind's tenure ends on July 24 and the new president will take oath on July 25.

Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody, who is the chief returning officer for the poll, will oversee the counting and the results are likely to be declared by the evening.

Mody will first brief reporters about the trends after the votes of the MPs are counted and then again, after the votes of 10 states are counted.

Voting for the presidential poll was held on July 18 at 31 places, including all the state assemblies and Parliament.

More than 99 per cent polling was reported. A total of 4,809 electors -- 776 MPs and 4,033 elected MLAs -- are entitled to vote in the presidential election, but the nominated MPs and MLAs and the members of the legislative council are not.