Crucial week for Presidential election, last date for filing nominations is June 28

This is a crucial week for the Presidential election. The Election Commission of India issued a notification last week. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has said its candidate will file his or her nomination papers on June 23 (Friday). The last date for filing nominations is June 28. Whether it will be a no-contest election or a contest will be decided by midnight on June 30 as July 1 is the last date for withdrawal. The role of the All India Annaa Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is crucial. They together have 119,000 votes. The AIADMK in Tamil Nadu has 59,000, the BJD in Odisha 36,500, and TRS in Telangana 23,200. These parties have supported many Bills of the government in the past three years. But, their support will be contingent on the candidate the NDA sets up. Election for the President entails no party whip for the voters. This makes the choice of candidate important.

Yoga Day in Yogi land

International Yoga Day (June 21) will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lucknow doing surya namaskar. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will host the PM at a massive yoga demonstration , with 50,000 practitioners. Preparations are underway for the event.

The United Nations General Assembly, after a call by Modi in 2014, announced June 21 as International Yoga Day. The first such celebration was organised at Rajpath in Delhi in 2015, in which representatives of about 190 countries participated. Last year, the Day's celebration was in Chandigarh.