Droupadi Murmu always looked set for a comfortable win because of NDA’s strength and the support it had secured for her from regional parties, but the scale of her victory became bigger because of the number of votes she secured from opposition. As many as 126 MLAs across 18 states and 17 MPs defied diktats of their parties to vote for her, which appears significant because of the polarised political milieu and opposition’s attempt to turn the Presidential contest into a battle of ideologies.