Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed a buzz in the media about electing the President of India. This office came into being on January 26, 1950, when the Constitution came into force and India became a republic. India’s first President was Rajendra Prasad and, right now, we have Pranab Mukherjee who will step down from the office on July 25, 2017. The term of the President is for five years.
What does the President do?
He/She is the Head of the State and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (Army, Air Force and Navy). This means that he/she can declare war or make peace on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. The President also appoints the chiefs of the various branches of the armed forces.
According to the Constitution, the President has the responsibility and authority to protect the rule of law. So the actions of the executive and legislature can become law only after the President assents to it. He/She can reject anything that is unconstitutional. The President can withhold assent to any bill passed by the Parliament or send it back to be reconsidered. When Parliament is not in session, the President can promulgate an ordinance for an immediate procedure. This however has to be approved by the Parliament within six weeks of its convening.
The President also appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Chief Justice and other judges and a number of officials including the Attorney General, the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners.
The President has a role in financial matters too. Among other things, He/she has to recommend the introduction of the money bill and constitute a finance commission every five years to suggest how the taxes can be distributed between the centre and the states.
The President can also proclaim a state of emergency, which could national, state or financial. India has been through three national emergencies: two external — from 1962-68, proclaimed by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, to take the country through the Sino-Indian War (1962-64) and the Indo-Pakistan War (1965); in 1971, proclaimed by VV Giri in the face of the Indo-Pakistan War; and an internal emergency proclaimed by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in 1975. The latter two were revoked together in 1978.
RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN: The official residence of the President of India.
State emergencies are imposed if the Governor reports that the constitutional machinery has broken down. This provision has been misused however to remove democratically elected governments. The President then administers the State through the governor. Though a financial emergency has not been declared the President can proclaim one when the country’s financial stability or credit is threatened.
How is a President selected?
The electoral college — which comprises the elected members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and of the legislative assemblies of all the states and Union Territories — elect the President. Remember, nominated members cannot vote.
This year, there are 776 Members of Parliament (MPs) and 4120 Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) leading to a total of 4986 electors. But the total value of votes is 1098903. Confused? Let’s resolve that.
First, the value of an MP’s vote is more than that of an MLA’s. Second, the value of an MLA’s vote is calculated thus: value of MLA’s vote = the population of the State as per 1971 Census divided by the total number of elected members of that state assembly. The quotient is then divided by 1000.
So, for example, if a state has 120 elected members in its Legislative Assembly and its population in the 1971 Census was two crores, the calculation would be
20000000 / 120x1000 = 167. So each MLA from this state would have 167 votes. This will have to be done for each state. For this year’s election, the total number of MLA votes is 549,495.
Now we come to the value of each MP’s vote. To calculate this, you have to divide the total number of MLA votes (549,495) by the total number of MPs (776; 543 in Lok Sabha and 233 in Rajya Sabha). So 549495/776 is 708, which is the value of each MP’s vote. And the total value of all the MPs’ votes is 708x776 = 549,408.
Remember because of the difference in population and number of seats in the state assembly, states that have a larger population and more number of seats have more value for their votes.
The actual voting is by secret ballot. Each voter gets a ballot paper marked with the names of the candidates and he/she will have to mark in order of preference. The candidate who gets 50% of the valid first preferred votes will be elected President.
Famous past Presidents
Rajendra Prasad: Is the only one to have held office for two terms (1952-1957; 1957-1962)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: A philosopher and writer who was also made a Knight of the Golden Army of Angels by Pope Paul VI (1962-1967)
VV Giri: was Acting President after President Zakir Husain died in office. But was elected President soon after. (1969-1974)
KR Narayanan: a career diplomat who became the 10th President. He was India’s first Dalit President (1997-2002)
APJ Abdul Kalam: a scientist who was instrumental in developing India's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes (2002-2007)
Who are the candidates?
So far only the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has announced its candidate: Ram Nath Kovind, a two-time MP from Uttar Pradesh and the current Governor of Bihar.
As far as the candidate of the Opposition parties led by the Congress is concerned, the front runner seems to be former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar. Other names doing the rounds are veteran Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, CPI (M) leader D Raja and former governor of West Bengal Gopal Krishna Gandhi (also Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson). The left parties have also suggested former MP Prakash Ambedkar (Dr BR Ambedkar’s grandson).
