Election of the President

Also called: Article 54, Article 55 · Topic: Union Executive: President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 5 "Universal Franchise and India's Electoral System"; Class 9, Ch 7 "Elections"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Executive"

Meaning

The President of India is chosen by an electoral college (a fixed group of people who have the right to vote in this election). It is made up of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the states, Delhi and Puducherry (Art. 54). They vote by proportional representation by single transferable vote in a secret ballot. The value of each vote is based on the 1971 population (Art. 55).

This is an indirect election, which means the people do not vote for the President themselves. This keeps the President a nominal head of state who does not compete with the Prime Minister. Because state MLAs also vote, the states get a real voice in choosing the head of the Union.

Explanation

Who votes: the electoral college (Art. 54)

• Three groups can vote [3][2]:
• Elected members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• Elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the states.

• Elected members of the assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry. The 70th Amendment (1992) added these two through an Explanation to Art. 54.

• Who cannot vote:

• Nominated members of either House, including the 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha [2].

• Members of Legislative Councils, the upper Houses that some states have [2].

• Jammu and Kashmir:

• J&K's assembly had been dissolved and was not formed again before 2022, so its 87 MLAs did not vote in 2022 [2].

• The Explanation to Art. 54 names only Delhi and Puducherry, not the assembly of the Union Territory of J&K. It is still an open question whether that assembly will vote next time.

• Size in 2022: 4,033 MLAs and 776 elected MPs could vote in the 16th Presidential Election [2].

How much each vote is worth (Art. 55)

• Two aims:
• Uniformity among states: each MLA's vote should stand for roughly the same number of people in every state.

• Parity between states and the Union: all MLAs together carry the same total weight as all MPs together.

• Value of an MLA's vote = (population of the state in 1971 ÷ number of elected MLAs in that state) ÷ 1,000.

• Value of an MP's vote = total value of all MLAs' votes ÷ number of elected MPs.
• 1971 freeze: the 84th Amendment (2001) keeps the 1971 population as the base until the first census taken after 2026.

Item	Value
MP vote, 2017	708
MP vote, 2022	700 (it fell because J&K had no assembly)
UP MLA vote, 2022	208 (highest)
Sikkim MLA vote, 2022	7 (lowest)
All MLAs' votes, 2022	5,43,231 [2]
All MPs' votes, 2022	5,43,200 [2]
Whole electoral college, 2022	10,86,431 [2]
J&K MLA votes left out, 2022	6,264 (87 MLAs) [2]

How votes are cast and counted (Art. 55(3))

• Single transferable vote (STV):
• Each voter has one vote but ranks the candidates 1, 2, 3 and so on.

• If the voter's first choice cannot use the vote, it passes to the next choice.

• Secret ballot: nobody can see how a member voted.

• Quota (the number of votes needed to win) = half of the valid votes + 1.

• 2022 quota: (5,43,231 + 5,43,200 + 1) ÷ 2 = 5,43,216 [2].

• Counting steps [2]: 1. Round 1: first-preference votes are counted. A candidate who reaches the quota wins. 2. If nobody reaches the quota: the candidate with the fewest votes is removed. Their ballots go to the second preferences marked on them. 3. Repeat until one candidate reaches the quota.

Who can stand and what follows the election (Arts. 56–60, 62)

• Qualifications (Art. 58):
• The candidate must be a citizen of India.
• The candidate must be at least 35 years old.
• The candidate must be qualified to become a member of the Lok Sabha.

• The candidate must not hold an office of profit, meaning a paid post under the Union, a state, or a local authority controlled by them. The posts of President, Vice-President, Governor and Union or state minister do not count as offices of profit.

• Nomination (Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, amended 1997):

• The candidate needs 50 proposers and 50 seconders from the electoral college [2].
• The candidate must pay a ₹15,000 security deposit [2].

• These rules keep out candidates who are not serious.

• Conditions of office (Art. 59): the President cannot be a member of Parliament or of any state legislature. If a legislator is elected, their seat falls vacant on the day they take office as President.

• Oath (Art. 60): taken before the Chief Justice of India. If the Chief Justice is absent, it is taken before the senior-most Supreme Court judge.
• Term (Art. 56): five years from the day the President takes office. The President stays in office until a successor takes over. The President resigns by writing to the Vice-President.
• Re-election (Art. 57): allowed.
• Timing of the election (Art. 62):
• When the term is ending: the election must be finished before the term expires.
• Vacancy for any other reason (death, resignation or removal): the election must be held within six months.
• The new President gets a full five-year term, not just the rest of the old one.

In the Constitution and practice

• Constitutional base:
• Art. 54: who votes.
• Art. 55: how much each vote is worth, and the method of voting.
• Art. 58: qualifications.
• Art. 62: when the election must be held.

• Art. 71: election disputes.

• Amendments:

• 11th Amendment (1961): a vacancy in the electoral college, such as a dissolved state assembly, cannot be used to challenge the election.
• 70th Amendment (1992): added the Delhi and Puducherry assemblies to the electoral college.

• 84th Amendment (2001): keeps the 1971 population as the base until the first census after 2026.

• Law: the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 (amended 1997) sets the nomination rules and the procedure for election disputes.

• Election disputes (Art. 71):
• Only the Supreme Court can decide them.

• If an election is declared void, acts done by that President before the judgment remain valid.

• Key instances:

• 1952 and 1957: Rajendra Prasad is the only President elected for two terms.
• 1969 (5th Presidential Election): V.V. Giri's election is the only time no candidate reached the quota in the first round. A second round of counting was needed [2].
• 2022 (16th Presidential Election):
  • J&K's 87 MLAs could not vote because there was no assembly [2].
  • This lowered the value of an MP's vote from 708 to 700.
  • The 11th Amendment shields the result from challenge on this ground.

Don't confuse with

• Impeachment of the President (Art. 61): Nominated MPs do not vote in the election but do vote in impeachment. Elected MLAs vote in the election but have no role in impeachment.
• Election of the Vice-President: the President's electoral college includes state MLAs. Disputes over both elections go only to the Supreme Court (Art. 71).
• Lok Sabha election (first-past-the-post): in a Lok Sabha election, the candidate with the most votes wins. A President must reach a quota of more than half of the valid votes, using ranked preferences (STV).
• Universal adult franchise: in a Lok Sabha election, citizens vote directly. In a Presidential election only elected legislators vote, so it is an indirect election.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 54 + 70th Amendment (1992): elected MLAs of Delhi and Puducherry vote. Nominated MPs and members of Legislative Councils do not.
• 84th Amendment (2001): vote values use the 1971 population until the first census after 2026. MP vote = 708 (2017) and 700 (2022). UP MLA = 208 and Sikkim MLA = 7 (2022).
• 2022 quota: 5,43,216 out of a total of 10,86,431 [2]. Only V.V. Giri (1969) needed a second round of counting [2].
• Nomination: 50 proposers + 50 seconders + ₹15,000 deposit, under the 1952 Act as amended in 1997.
• Art. 71 + 11th Amendment (1961): disputes go only to the Supreme Court. A vacancy in the electoral college is no ground to challenge the election.
• Trap: a President elected after a mid-term vacancy gets a full five-year term (Art. 62). The President resigns to the Vice-President, and the oath is taken before the Chief Justice of India.

Mains Points

• Why the election is indirect:
• The President is the nominal head and acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers.
• A direct election would give the President a popular mandate that could compete with the Prime Minister's.

• An electoral college of MPs and MLAs with weighted votes (Art. 55) makes the President a national choice. It also gives the states a voice, which reflects federalism (power shared between the Union and the states).

• Fairness of vote values:

• The 1971 freeze (84th Amendment): states that controlled their population growth are not penalised. But today's population differences are not reflected.

• After the first census following 2026: vote values will shift towards the more populous states. This links to the wider debate on delimitation and the North–South balance.

• Representation gaps:

• J&K's exclusion in 2022 lowered the value of an MP's vote from 708 to 700 [2].
• The 11th Amendment protects the result from challenge, but the case raises a question of fair representation.
• Art. 54 still does not mention the assembly of the Union Territory of J&K. A clarifying amendment could settle whether it votes in future elections.

Related concepts

• Value of votes in presidential election
• Qualifications of the President
• Impeachment of the President
• Presidential election disputes
• Immunity of the President and Governors

Read more

• Electing and removing the President