Giving a semblance of credibility to the Congress’s oft-quoted rant that BJD and BJP are two sides of the same coin, a tweet by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik makes one to believe that the CM had prior knowledge about the selection of Draupadi Murmu as BJP-led NDA’s Presidential nominee.
Following the selection of Murmu as NDA’s Presidential pick, Naveen expressed happiness. The BJD supremo said it was a proud moment for the people of Odisha.
Naveen took to Twitter to congratulate Murmu on her candidature. However, from his tweet it was crystal clear that Naveen had prior knowledge about Murmu’s selection.
“Congratulations Smt #DraupadiMurmu on being announced as candidate of NDA for the country’s highest office. I was delighted when Hon’ble PM @narendramodi ji discussed this with me. It is indeed a proud moment for people of #Odisha,” tweeted Naveen.
As per the tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier discussed about Murmu’s candidature with Naveen to garner support from BJD.
Notably, the President of India is elected by an electoral college comprising 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 233 Rajya Sabha MPs and 4,120 MLAs. The value of the vote of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs remains uniform across the states, but the value of the votes of MLAs depends on the population of the State. Therefore, the value of the vote of a Uttar Pradesh MLA is the highest in the country.
Odisha Assembly has 147 MLAs, out of which BJD holds 112 seats. The value of each Odisha MLA according to the Presidential electoral college is 149. Along with this, the BJD has 12 MPs in Lok Sabha and nine MPs in Rajya Sabha. Each of the MPs from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha holds a value of 708 votes per seat. So, in all, Naveen controls 23,072 votes in an electoral college of over 10 lakh votes.