'Not only Murmu & Sinha, 70 more aspirants for President post', says Rajya Sabha official

|HT|

National Democratic Alliance’s candidate Droupadi Murmu and Opposition’s face Yashwant Sinha are not the only two contenders aspiring to be next President of India as there are 70 other aspirants in the fray at this stage of the key race, according to data available with Rajya Sabha secretariat officials. Nomination papers of 72 candidates are currently being scrutinised by the officials, who are in charge of the election to India’s highest office.

A senior Rajya Sabha official said that 115 candidates had submitted their papers, of which 28 were rejected straightway due to lapses in the forms. “Now, 85 nomination papers for 72 candidates are being scrutinised by the officials.” According to the law, a nomination paper of a candidate must be subscribed to by at least 50 electors as proposers, and by at least another 50 electors as seconders. An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or a seconder, and is governed by Section 5B (5) of the Presidential and Vice- Presidential Elections Act, 1952. The law also stipulates that a candidate can file a maximum of four nomination papers. The security deposit for the election is ₹15,000, which is required to be remitted along with the nomination paper, or deposited in the Reserve Bank of India or a government treasury under the relevant head of accounts for the purpose, prior to the filing of nomination.

Officials added that both Murmu and Sinha’s nomination has four sets of nomination papers filed by various lawmakers of the respective camps. “But the other candidates are unlikely to get such proposers and seconders. At this stage, such things will be scrutinised and finally, the election is likely to take place between the two key candidates – Murmu and Sinha,” they said.

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