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How President of India is elected?

How President of India is elected?

General awareness or GK  is a must for cracking MBA entrance exams and for updating you on this MBARendezvous.com -India's content lead MBA website  has started series of articles to equip MBA aspirants with general awareness with the hope that you would get success in various MBA entrance exams

Following article on”How President of India is elected” is part of our series on general awareness:  

Difference between democracy and republic is a minor one where democracy refers to the government elected by the people while republic refers to the Head of the state elected by the people. 
 
In India, Prime Minister is the head of government while President is the head of the state. In England, Prime Minister is head of government and Queen is the head of the state. Since Prime minister is elected by the people of England but Queen is not, England is a democracy but not a republic. But in India both the head of the government as well as state both are elected by the people of India, India is a democratic as well as republic. 
 
As per Article 52 of the Constitution of India, there shall be a President of India and the executive powers of the Union shall be vested in the President. The President of India is the first citizen and represents the Indian nation and does not, therefore, belong to any particular political party. Election of President is conducted by the Election Commission of India. He / She  is indirectly elected by the people of India as the representatives of the people through an Electoral College. 
 
The main reasons behind the indirect election of President of India as discussed in the Constituent Assembly were –
 
•If the direct election of the President were adopted, the Presidential candidate who has to carry on an election campaign from one corner of the country to another will certainly be put up by some party or the other, which may cause political excitement and generate party feelings. Thus the person elected to the Presidential office through this means will never be able to forget his party affiliations.
 
•A directly elected President may not be content with his position of a mere constitutional head and can claim to derive his authority directly from the people. So, if he wanted to assume real power, it would lead to a constitutional deadlock.
 
The Electoral College constitutes the elected members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies who elect the President through proportional representation single transferable vote. 
 
Candidate who corners the majority i.e. more than 50 percent of votes is the winner but it is possible that four aspiring candidates A, B, C and D gets 35 %, 30% 25 % and 20 % respectively and no one gains more than 50% of votes. In this case, single transferable vote is used where each voter gave preference to each candidate as first, second, third of fourth preference. Since in the said example, D gets least number of first preference votes, He will be eliminated from the race and his votes will be distributed among the other contestants on the basis of the second preference. 
 
The Proportional Representation is followed by assigning a value to the votes of MP and MLA. Each member of the Electoral College who is a member of a State Legislative Assembly will have a number of votes calculated as follows: 
 
On vote of MLA = Total population of state/ Number of MLAs in the state x 1000
Fractions exceeding one half being are counted as one. 
 
For example , The population of Punjab is 1,35,51,060. Let us take the total number of elected members of the Legislature of Punjab to be 117. Now applying the aforesaid process, if we divide 1,35,51,060 (i.e. the population) by 117 (i.e. the total number of elected members), the quotient is 115821.0256. Therefore, the number of votes which each member of the Punjab Legislature would be entitled to cast is 115,821.0256/1000 i.e. 116.
 
The value of a vote of MP is = Total value of vote of all MLAs/ Total No. of MPs
 
In 2012 Presidential elections, 
Value of vote of each elector in Parliament = 1025179/776= 1321(without fraction)
 
Total value of votes of Parliament= 776 x 1321=1025096
 
Total value of votes of State electors (4120 MLAs) = 1025179
 
Total value of 4896 electors for Presidential election in 2012= 2050275
 
In this manner, total 4896 electors from the country will vote to elect the President of India through a single transferable vote. In order to be elected as President of India, he / she  
 
•Must be a citizen of India. 
•Completed 35 yrs in age. 
•Eligible to be a member of Lok Sabha. 
•Must not hold any Government post   
 
Supreme Court inquires all disputes regarding President's election. President takes oath in presence of Chief Justice of India, or in his absence, senior most judge of Supreme Court.
 
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