As Presidential poll continues, all you need to know about election process
New Delhi: As the polling begins for the 14th President of India, legislators and parliamentarians on Monday have queued in to cast their vote to the NDA’s candidate former Bihar governor, Ram Nath Kovind, and Opposition’s nominee Meira Kumar.
The Dalit vs Dalit contest has seen rigorous campaign of both the candidates who will succeed the 13th President Pranab Mukherjee whose term ends on July 24.
How do we elect our president?
The President is elected by the Electoral College which consists of 4896 voters -- 4120 MLAs from 29 States and 7 Union Territories and 776 Member of parliaments of both houses Lok Sabha (543) and Rajya Sabha (233).
The procedure of electing President is different from the rest of the elections as each MLA and MLA’s vote has a certain value attached to it and this value differs from state to state.
For example, Uttar Pradesh legislator's vote has a value of 208 while the value of votes of their counterparts from Arunachal Pradesh is just 8. A similar weightage applies for parliamentarians.
The total value of all votes is 10,98,903 - 5,49,408 for MPs and 5,49,495 for MLAs. A candidate is required to secure at least one more than 50 per cent of the total value of votes polled.
While the Lok Sabha Speaker, an elected member, can vote, the two nominated members in the Lower House from the Anglo-Indian community cannot. Twelve nominated members in Rajya Sabha are also ineligible, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), in order to get 100 per cent turnout for the President elections has allowed 14 Rajya Sabha MPs and 41 Lok Sabha MPs to vote in state assemblies, along with the MLAs of respective states.
President Pranab Mukehrjee during his election to Raisin in 2012 had garnered 7, 13,763 votes, whereas, Pratibha Patil, another UPA nominee, had secured 6, 38,116 votes to become the 12th president in 2007.
The counting of votes will take place on July 20 in New Delhi where all the ballot boxes will be brought from various state capitals.
In total there are 13 vacancies in Lok Sabha and state assemblies, it will be filled once the new president assumes office.
It is speculated has the NDA’s candidate Ram Nath Kovind to win the president polls with 60 per cent support. The Opposition’s candidate is backed with 17 parties, except Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s party JD(U) who has put his weight behind Kovind.
Meanwhile, the ECI on Sunday barred Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra from voting for the next president. ECI disqualified Narottam Mishra over paid news charges for three years, holding him guilty of not giving a true account of expenses incurred in the 2008 Assembly polls.
