How to Elect President in India?

The post of the President of India is a post of highest honour and constitutional supremacy, which is committed to the protection of democratic traditions and beliefs. The post of President is a constitutional authority. He is called the first citizen of the country.

The President of the Republic of India has constitutional rights, but he does not have any political will of his own. According to our Constitution, duties and power are divided between the President and the Prime Minister. The power lies with the Prime Minister and the duty lies with the President.

Election of the President

According to Article 54 of the Constitution, the President is elected by an electoral college. Only elected members of both the Houses of Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies of the States participate in the electoral college. Two nominated members of the Lok Sabha, (abolished by the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2019), 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and nominated members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States are not entitled to vote in the election of the President. Anyway, no members of the Legislative Assemblies of Union Territories had membership of the electoral college. But in the 78th Constitutional Amendment Bill passed in the budget session of 1992, provision has been made to include the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of Delhi and Pondicherry Union Territories in the electoral college. There are 4896 voters in the electoral college.

At present, the number of elected members of the Lok Sabha is 543 and that of the Rajya Sabha is 233. That is, the total number of members of both the houses is 776. The value of their total votes is 549408. Similarly, the total number of elected members of the Legislative Assemblies including Delhi, Pondicherry and Jammu and Kashmir is 4120. The value of their total votes is 549474.

Article 55, The election of the President will be done by the single transferable vote method of proportional representation. Voting will be secret.

In this method, there will be uniformity in the scale of representation of different states in the election of the President and there will be an attempt to achieve uniformity among all the states and such equivalence in all the states and the Union.

1. First of all, the value of votes of MPs is calculated, for which the value of vote of any one MP

Value =  Value of total votes of elected MLAs i.e. 549474 / Number of elected MPs i.e. 776 = 708.085 i.e. 708

2.  Value of vote of one MLA = Total population of the concerned state /  Number of MLAs of the concerned state × 1000     

3. After that the quota will be determined. In which it is necessary for the President to get more than half the votes.

Quota = (Total valid votes / 2) + 1            

Value of votes of total elected MLAs of the state = 549474

Value of total votes of MPs 708 x 776 = 549408

Value of total votes of all voters = 549,474 $ 549,408 = 1098,882

Under the single transferable vote system, voting and counting take place and the voter marks the order of preference of his choice.

In the counting, first of all the first preference votes are counted and the candidate who gets the quota is declared elected. But if no one wins in the first preference, then the second preference is counted. In this, the candidate who gets the least votes in the first preference is eliminated from the election round and on the basis of his first preference, the second preference vote is distributed among the candidates. This is single transferable and the candidate who gets the quota gets elected. This counting continues till the prescribed quota is not achieved.

For example, if there are three candidates A.B.C. in the presidential election, then after voting, when the first preference is counted in the counting, the candidate who gets the prescribed quota will be considered the winner. Suppose 'A' gets the prescribed quota, then he wins, but if in the counting of first preference, if no one gets the quota, then the counting of second round takes place. In which, suppose 'C' has got the least number of votes, then 'C' will be eliminated from the election round. And the candidate who has got the second choice votes on the basis of his first choice. For example, some votes have gone to 'A' and some votes to 'B'. So these votes will be added to his second choice votes. In this way, the candidate who again gets the quota will be declared elected. In India, President V.V. Giri was elected in 1969 on the basis of second preference.