By IANS
New Delhi : Ruling alliance nominee Pratibha Patil was heading for a huge victory, winning more than the expected votes even in opposition ruled states as counting for the presidential poll in seven states was over till Saturday afternoon.
In the seven states for which the votes of legislators are being counted, Patil won 67,7710 votes leaving her rival Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an independent backed by the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with just 35,670 votes.
The votes of MPs will be taken up late afternoon.
The electoral college of MPs and MLAs constitute 1.09 million votes. Once elected, Patil will be the country's 13th president and the first woman head of the state.
According to early information, Patil has won more votes than her Congress party expected. She is supported by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
It was a sweep for Patil in Andhra Pradesh, where 223 MLAs voted for her with just two for Shekhawat, in Arunachal Pradesh it was 58 for her and one for Shekhawat, in Assam, she got 92 and Shekhawat 20 (four votes were invalid), in Delhi (50-19) and in Goa (25-14).
However, Shekhawat got more votes in Bihar – 145 – to Patil's 89, Chhattisgarh (51-37) and in Gujarat (123-57).
However, Patil managed unexpected support from MLAs of NDA-ruled Bihar and Gujarat, where at least 15 BJP MLAs claimed to have cross-voted for her.
The counting began at 11 a.m. in Room No. 62 of parliament building where 692 MPs registered their votes Thursday.
The ballot boxes from the 30 assembly houses across the country have been brought to the national capital for counting. According to parliament sources, the Election Commission is doing the counting according to alphabetical order of the states.
While Patil is expected to get more than 600,000 votes from the electoral college, Shekhawat may get around 300,000.
The new president, to succeed A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, will be sworn in on July 25.