Election Process of President of India

Written By: Brijesh Singh | Updated: September 09, 2024, 05:04 pm IST | Category: Indian Polity | Views: 105 views

The President of India is neither nominated nor hereditary but elected. However, the election is not direct but indirect through an electoral college. This electoral college elects the President.

Electoral College in the Election of the President

Article 54 of the Constitution defines that the President shall be elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of—

• (a) the elected members of both Houses of Parliament; and
• (b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States. The State includes the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

In the above, following points are noteworthy:

• Here the word elected members of both Houses of Parliament has been used. Thus, both houses mean the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
• Secondly, only elected members are part of the Electoral College. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha also contain nominated members. This means that nominated members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cannot participate in the election of the President.
• Similarly, only elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies can participate in the election of the President.
• State Legislative Councils cannot participate in the election of the President.

Lok Sabha

• Between 1952 and 2020, two seats were reserved in the Lok Sabha for members of the Anglo-Indian community.
• As per provisions in Article 331 of the Constitution, the President nominates two members from the Anglo-Indian community if he feels they are not adequately represented in the Lok Sabha.
• The President of India nominated these two members on the advice of the Government of India.
• However, vide the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act, passed on December 10, 2019, removed the provision of the nomination of the two Anglo-Indians to the Lok Sabha and State Legislature.
• Thus, as of August 2024, no nominated members are in the Lok Sabha.

Rajya Sabha

• The Rajya Sabha has a maximum of 250 members, out of which 12 are nominated by the President from fields like literature, science, art, and social service.
• Thus, these 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are not members of the Electoral College and therefore cannot participate in the election of the President.

State Legislative Assemblies

• Several State Legislative Assemblies have a provision for nominated members.
• These nominated members of various Legislative Assemblies are not members of the Electoral College and therefore cannot participate in the election of the President.
• Only the elected members of State Legislative Assemblies are members of the Electoral College and therefore can participate in the election of the President.
• Where a Legislative Assembly is dissolved, the members cease to be members of the Legislative Assembly and therefore are not members of the Electoral College and hence cannot participate in the election of the President. This applies even if fresh elections to the dissolved assembly are not held before the election for the President.

State Legislative Councils

• Members of State Legislative Councils whether elected or nominated are not members of the Electoral College and therefore cannot participate in the election of the President.

National Capital Territory of Delhi

• As per provisions laid in the 70th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 which came into effect on June 1, 1995, the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and the Union territory of Pondicherry (now Puducherry) have been considered as States for the list of States under Article 54 and 55.
• Thus, elected members of State Legislative Assemblies of the National Capital Territory of Delhi are members of the Electoral College and therefore can participate in the election of the President.

Union Territory of Puducherry

• The elected members of State Legislative Assemblies of the Union territory of Puducherry are members of the Electoral College and therefore can participate in the election of the President.

Manner of Election of President

The Constitution ensures that as far as possible the principle of uniformity in the representation of States in the process of election of President is maintained. To maintain this uniformity, the Constitution lays down various provisions and formulae.

Value of Votes in State Legislative Assemblies

As per the provisions laid down in Article 55, Clause 2,

• (a) every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a State shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total number of the elected members of the Assembly;
• (b) if, after taking the said multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member referred to in sub-clause (a) shall be further increased by one;

This can be expressed as:

Value of the vote of an elected member of a legislative assembly
= (Total population of the State / Total number of elected members of the State legislative assembly) / 1000

The Constitution (Eighty-fourth) Amendment Act, 2001 provides that until the relevant population figures for the first census to be taken after the year 2026 have been published, the population of the States for calculation of the value of votes for the Presidential Election shall mean the population as ascertained at the 1971-census.

For example: Case 1, Uttar Pradesh

The population of Uttar Pradesh as per the 1971 Census was = 8,38,49,905

The total number of elected members of the State Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh = 403

Therefore, the value of each vote of an elected member of the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh
= (8,38,49,905 / 403) / 1000
= 2,08,064 / 1000
= 208 (reminder is 064 which is less than 500)
= 208
Therefore, value of vote of each member of legislative assembly from Uttar Pradesh would be 208.

For example: Case 1, Madhya Pradesh

The population of Madhya Pradesh as per the 1971 Census was = 3,00,16,625

The total number of elected members of the State Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh = 230

Therefore, the value of each vote of an elected member of the legislative assembly of Madhya Pradesh
= (3,00,16,625 / 230) / 1000
= 1,30,507 / 1000
= 130 + 1 (reminder is 507 which is more than 500, therefore clause (b) applies)
= 131
Therefore, value of vote of each member of legislative assembly from Madhya Pradesh would be 131.

Value of Votes in the Parliament

As per the provisions laid down in Article 55, Clause 2(c)

• (c) each elected member of either House of Parliament shall have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States under sub-clauses (a) and (b) by the total number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament, fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.

In other words, this can be expressed as:

Value of the vote of an elected member of Parliament
= (Total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States / The total number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament

For example:

The total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States
= 5,49,945

The total number of elected members of both Houses of Parliament
= Total elected members of Rajya Sabha + Total elected members of Lok Sabha
= 233 + 543
= 776

Therefore, the value of each vote of an elected member of Parliament
= (Total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States / The total number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament
= 5,49,945 / 776
= 708.11
= 708

This can be summarized as given below.

Thus, as far as possible the scale of uniformity has been maintained.

Proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote

As per the provisions laid down in Article 55, Clause 3

The voting in the election is done by secret ballot, which implies that the political parties cannot issue whips to their respective Members of the Parliament (MPs) or Members of the Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and rules of Anti-Defection laws do not apply.

The manner of voting at the Presidential Election is contained in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974. This is summarised below.

• The voting is done through secret ballot.
• The ballot paper does not contain any election symbol.
• The political parties cannot issue any whip to their MPs and MLAs in the matter of voting in the Presidential election.
• There will be two columns in the ballot paper.
  • Column 1 of the ballot paper contains the heading “Name of Candidate”, and
  • Column 2 contains the heading “order of preference”.
• Each Elector shall have as many preferences as there are contesting candidates, but no ballot paper shall be considered invalid solely on the ground that all such preferences are not marked.
• An elector in giving his vote shall place figure 1 in the space opposite the name of the candidate whom he chooses for his first preference and may.
  • In addition, the elector may mark as many subsequent preferences as he wishes by placing on his ballot paper the figures 2, 3, 4, and so on in the spaces opposite the names of other candidates, in order of preference.

Who conducts the election to the office of President?

As per provisions laid down in Article 324 of the Constitution, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has the authority to conduct elections for the office of the President.

Rules for candidate to file nomination to contest the election for the post of the President

A persons who wants to contest the election for the post of the President must follow the given below process as prescribed in the the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.

• Nomination can be filed either by the candidate himself or by any of his proposers or seconders.
• A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least fifty electors as proposers and by at least other fifty electors as seconders.
• An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or a seconder.
• A candidate can file maximum of four nomination papers.
• The security deposit for the election is Rs. 15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand only), which is required to be made along with the nomination paper.

Sources:

1. https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
2. NCERT Text Book – Class 11 – Political Science – Indian Constitution at Work