The Election Commission on Thursday (9-June-2022) announced the dates for the presidential election. The Election Commission said that the notification for the presidential election will be issued on June 15, while the nominations will be announced on June 29, the election on July 18 and the results on July 21. President Ram Nath Kovind’s term ends on July 24 and the next presidential election is to be held before that. The President is elected by the members of the electoral college consisting of elected members of both the Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all the states, including the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha or Legislative Assemblies in the electoral college are not eligible to vote and do not participate in elections. Similarly, nominated members of Legislative Councils also do not participate as voters in the Presidential elections. The presidential election in 2017 was held on 17 July and the counting of votes took place on 20 July.
If we talk in terms of numbers, then the electoral college has a total of 4,896 members, which is made up of 233 MPs from Rajya Sabha, 543 MPs from Lok Sabha and 4120 MLAs from all the Legislative Assemblies of the country. The value of each MP’s vote is fixed at 708, while the value of an MLA’s vote in the states is the highest at 208 (this varies from state to state and is determined by the population of each state). Uttar Pradesh MLAs have the highest vote value (83,824) among the territories.
Presidential election is held on the basis of proportional representation. The value of each vote is predetermined and is determined on the basis of the 1971 population. The electoral college has a total vote value of 10,98,903 with a total of 4,896 members. If a candidate wants an election, then at least 50 percent of the votes will be required.
After recently winning the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa assembly elections, in this election, for the time being, the side of the BJP alliance seems to be heavy. At the same time, due to the lack of majority of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition is feeling heavy.