President poll: 99.5% vote, result on Thursday

BJP expects cross-voting would increase victory margin in Kovind's favour

Of the total 4,880 valid voters — 4,109 members of legislative Assemblies or MLAs and 771 elected members of Parliament (MPs) — 99.49 per cent on Monday voted to elect the next President of India. Three MPs and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strategists said they were confident that more than anticipated numbers of Opposition legislators and MPs voted for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, Ram Nath Kovind.

The counting of votes is scheduled for July 20 but Kovind’s victory is not in doubt. The only point of interest is the margin of his victory, and whether some MLAs or