Single transferable vote

Also called: STV · Topic: Elections and the Electoral System · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 5 "Universal Franchise and India's Electoral System"; Class 9, Ch 7 "Elections"; Class 11, Ch 1 "Constitution: Why and How?"; Class 11, Ch 3 "Election and Representation"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Executive"

Meaning

The single transferable vote (STV) is a voting method in which each voter has one vote but ranks the candidates 1, 2, 3 and so on. A candidate who reaches a fixed number of votes, called the quota, wins. Votes the winner does not need, and votes of candidates who are knocked out, move to the voters' next choices.

STV is one form of proportional representation (PR), a system that gives each group seats in line with its share of votes. India uses it for every major indirect election: the President, the Vice-President, the Rajya Sabha and the elected seats of the legislative councils.

Explanation

How a vote is cast and counted

• One vote, many preferences: each voter marks "1" for their first choice. They may also mark 2, 3 and so on for their next choices.
• Electoral quota (the fixed number of votes a candidate needs to win):
• Quota = [total valid votes ÷ (seats + 1)] + 1
• Example: 200 Rajasthan MLAs elect 4 Rajya Sabha members. 200 ÷ (4 + 1) = 40, and 40 + 1 = 41 votes.

• Why "+1": only 4 candidates can ever reach 41 out of 200, so a fifth winner is impossible.

• Counting steps, in order: 1. Count first preferences: the candidate each voter marked "1". 2. Declare winners: any candidate who reaches the quota is elected. 3. Transfer the surplus: votes above the quota pass to those voters' next choices. Example: A gets 50 votes against a quota of 41, so A's 9 extra votes are passed on. 4. Knock out the lowest: if nobody new reaches the quota, the lowest candidate is removed. That candidate's votes pass to the next choices. 5. Repeat steps 2–4 until all seats are filled.

STV for one seat: President and Vice-President

• With one seat, the quota is (votes ÷ 2) + 1. This is an absolute majority, meaning more than half of all valid votes.
• If no one gets this many first preferences:
• the lowest candidates are knocked out one by one;
• their votes go to the next preferences;

• this continues until someone crosses the majority.

• One-seat STV is also called the preferential vote or alternative vote.

What STV achieves, and what it does not

• What it achieves: within each assembly, parties win Rajya Sabha seats in line with how many MLAs they have.

• A minority party with enough MLAs to make one quota is sure to win one seat.

• What it does not do: it does not decide how many Rajya Sabha seats a state gets.

• That number is fixed by the Fourth Schedule, which shares out seats mainly by population.
• STV only decides who fills those seats.

• So Class 8 NCERT's line that this system lets "smaller states also get fair representation" is not accurate.

• Limits in practice:

• STV works only if voters vote as their party expects. Cross-voting (a legislator voting for someone other than their party's official candidate) can upset the result.
• For the President and Vice-President, the count follows STV rules, but in practice it is an absolute-majority preferential count.

In the Constitution and practice

• Where STV is required:

Election	Provision	Who votes	Ballot
President	Arts. 54–55	Elected MPs + elected MLAs of states, Delhi and Puducherry	Secret; weighted votes
Vice-President	Art. 66	All MPs, including nominated MPs	Secret; equal votes
Rajya Sabha	Art. 80(4)	Elected MLAs of states and of the UTs of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir	Open ballot (since 2003)
Legislative councils	Art. 171	MLAs, local authorities, graduates and teachers, each for their own share of seats	Elected seats by STV

• Rajya Sabha and the open ballot (2003):
• Why it came: in the June 1998 Rajya Sabha election in Maharashtra, Congress MLAs ignored party instructions. Congress candidate Ram Pradhan lost, and an Independent won [3].
• The Rajya Sabha Ethics Committee, headed by S.B. Chavan, said in its December 1998 report that "money and muscle power" played a growing role in these polls. It suggested an open ballot [3].

• What changed: under s.59 of the RPA, 1951 (amended in 2003) and Rule 39AA of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, a party MLA must show the marked STV ballot to the party's authorised agent.

• Key cases:

• Kuldip Nayar v. Union of India (2006): the Supreme Court upheld the open ballot and the removal of the domicile rule. It said: "If secrecy becomes a source for corruption, then sunlight and transparency have the capacity to remove it" [3].

• Shailesh Manubhai Parmar v. ECI (2018): NOTA (a ballot option to reject all candidates) cannot be used in Rajya Sabha polls. NOTA is meant for direct elections. In an indirect, open-ballot STV poll, it would weaken party discipline.

• Key instances:

• 1969 Presidential election: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called for a "conscience vote", meaning members should vote their own choice. V.V. Giri beat the official Congress candidate N. Sanjiva Reddy. He crossed the quota only after second-preference votes were counted. This is the clearest example of STV transfers deciding a result.
• 2022 Presidential election: there were 4,796 electors, and the value of one MP's vote was 700 [4].
• 2025 Vice-Presidential election: of 781 eligible electors, 767 voted [2]. C.P. Radhakrishnan was elected the 15th Vice-President on 9 September 2025 [2].
• Himachal Pradesh, February 2024: six Congress MLAs cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha poll. They were disqualified for defying the party whip on the Budget vote, not for the cross-voting itself.

Don't confuse with

• First-past-the-post (FPTP): used for Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The candidate with the most votes wins, even without a majority, and there is no ranking or transfer. Under STV, a candidate must reach a quota.
• Fourth Schedule seat allocation: decides how many Rajya Sabha seats each state gets, mainly by population. STV decides only who fills those seats.
• Weighted voting (Art. 55): decides how much each vote is worth in the President's election, using the 1971 Census population. STV is the counting method. The Vice-President is also elected by STV, but every vote has the same value.
• Secret ballot vs open ballot: STV is secret for the President and Vice-President. For the Rajya Sabha, it has used an open ballot for party MLAs since 2003.

Prelims Hooks

• Quota = [votes ÷ (seats + 1)] + 1. With 200 MLAs and 4 seats, a candidate needs 41 votes. For one seat, the quota is an absolute majority.
• STV is used for the President (Art. 55), Vice-President (Art. 66), Rajya Sabha (Art. 80(4)) and legislative councils (Art. 171). It is not used for the Lok Sabha or state assemblies, which use FPTP.
• Trap: a state's number of Rajya Sabha seats comes from the Fourth Schedule, not from STV.
• Open ballot in Rajya Sabha STV polls: 2003, under s.59 RPA and Rule 39AA. It followed the S.B. Chavan Ethics Committee report of December 1998 [3].
• Kuldip Nayar (2006) upheld the open ballot. Shailesh Manubhai Parmar (2018) held there is no NOTA in Rajya Sabha polls.
• Trap: nominated MPs vote, by STV, for the Vice-President but not for the President. MLCs vote for neither.

Mains Points

• Proportionality vs federal voice:
• STV gives minority parties in an assembly a fair share of Rajya Sabha seats.
• But the open ballot makes the MLA a party agent, not a free voice of the state.

• The removal of the domicile rule lets party leaders be elected from any state. Together, these weaken the Rajya Sabha as a federal chamber (a House meant to speak for the states).

• STV and cross-voting:

• STV depends on predictable party votes, so cross-voting can change the result.
• The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) does not cover Rajya Sabha votes, because they are not votes "in the House".

• Reform choice: bring these polls under the Tenth Schedule, which risks tying MLAs even more to party orders. The other option is to rely on party discipline, with the open ballot as evidence. Himachal Pradesh in 2024 shows the gap.

• One-seat STV and legitimacy:

• For the President, STV with Art. 55 weighting makes sure the winner has an absolute majority of an electoral college balanced between the Union and the states.
• The 1969 election shows that preference transfers can turn this vote into a test of party power.

Related concepts

• Electoral quota
• Election of Rajya Sabha members
• Open ballot
• Kuldip Nayar case
• Shailesh Manubhai Parmar case
• Cross-voting
• Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act 1952

Read more

• STV and indirect elections: Rajya Sabha, President, Vice-President and councils