With JD-U, Kovind's support base swells

With JD-U deciding to back Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA nominee was on Wednesday all set to sail through the July 17 presidential election by a comfortable margin even though a contest seemed imminent.

The NDA -- including Shiv Sena and the PDP of Jammu and Kashmir -- which has named Kovind as its candidate for the 14th presidency, commands the support of 48.93 per cent in the electoral college made up of MPs and MLAs.

With the backing of parties outside the alliance like TRS (2 per cent), AIADMK (5.39 per cent), YSR Congress (1.53 per cent) and BJD (2.99 per cent), the NDA's support would cross the half-way-mark comfortably to reach nearly 63 per cent in the July 17 contest, with JD-U contributing 1.91 per cent.

After JD-U's decision to back Kovind, the vote share of NDA in the electoral college goes up to almost 63 per cent of vote value of 10,98,903.

--IANS

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