NEW DELH: The election for the President of India will be held today, July 18. Former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu, a candidate for the presidency of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and senior politician and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, a joint choice of the opposition, are the two contenders for the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Approximately 4,809 MPs and MLAs will cast votes today to choose India's 15th president.

With the backing of opposition parties like the BJD, TDP, YSRCP, AIADMK, JD(S), JMM, BSP, Shiromani Akali Dal, JMM, both factions of the Shiv Sena, JD(U), and the BJP, the NDA's candidate Murmu clearly has an edge over the opposition's nominee Yashwant Sinha. Sinha is supported by the Congress, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (N (AIUDF).

Voting will take place in state legislative assemblies and Parliament House, where ballot boxes have already arrived at their destinations.

The counting of votes will be takenplace at Parliament House on Thursday, July 21 and the next President will take oath on July 25.

If Droupadi Murmu, 64, wins the presidency of India, she will be the first tribal woman to hold the top constitutional position, after a Dalit and a Muslim president, which is a strong possibility as numbers are in the favour of BJP-led NDA.

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