LIVE: Droupadi Murmu surges ahead of Yashwant Sinha in Presidential polls

Of total 748 votes of MPs, NDA's Droupadi Murmu gets 540, Opposition's Yashwant Sinha gets 208, says Returning Officer

India on Thursday will know who will succeed incumbent Ram Nath Kovind to become the country's 15th President, as counting of votes for the presidential election begins at 11am at the Parliament House here. Ruling NDA's Droupadi Murmu and Opposition's Yashwant Sinha are pitted against each other in the contest, with votes clearly stacked in favour of Murmu, who, if elected, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post in the country. Kovind's tenure is ending on July 24 and the new president will take oath on July 25.

With Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi set to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the National Herald case on Thursday, the party leaders and MPs have said that the whole country is watching the "political vendetta, dictatorship and hooliganism of the Modi government" and they are not afraid of "puppets" like ED and CBI.