Election of the President (Articles 54–55)

At a Glance

• What it is Indirect election by an electoral college using proportional representation by single transferable vote
• Articles Articles 54 and 55, with Article 71 on disputes
• Electoral college Elected members of Parliament and of state and Delhi/Puducherry assemblies
• Ballot Secret ballot with preferences
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Polity: President

Where Does It Fit?

This is the second topic of the category on the President. The President is elected not directly by the people but by an electoral college, in a way that gives the states and the Union equal weight.

The Electoral College

The electoral college consists of: the elected members of both Houses of Parliament; the elected members of the legislative assemblies of the states; and the elected members of the legislative assemblies of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry (added by the 70th Amendment Act of 1992, from 1 June 1995). Nominated members of Parliament and of state assemblies, all members of the legislative councils, and the nominated member(s) of the Puducherry Assembly do not vote. The Delhi Assembly has no nominated members. The 104th Amendment Act of 2019 ended the nomination of Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha and assemblies from 25 January 2020. Where an assembly is dissolved, its members cease to be qualified to vote even if fresh elections have not been held before the presidential election.

Uniformity and Parity of Votes

The Constitution requires uniformity in the scale of representation of different states, and parity between the states as a whole and the Union. To achieve this:

1. Every elected member of a state legislative assembly has as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the state’s population by the total number of elected members of the assembly.
2. Every elected member of either House of Parliament has the number of votes obtained by dividing the total votes assigned to members of the state assemblies by the total number of elected members of both Houses.

The expression ‘population’ means the population as per the 1971 census, until the first census taken after 2026 is published (84th Amendment Act, 2001). In the 2022 election the value of each MP’s vote was 700, with 4,033 MLAs and 776 MPs making up 4,809 electors, and the grand total value of votes was 10,86,431.

The Voting System

The election is held under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, by secret ballot. A candidate must secure a fixed quota, found by dividing the total valid votes polled by the number of candidates to be elected plus one and adding one to the quotient. Each elector marks preferences 1, 2, 3 and so on. In the first phase, first preference votes are counted. If no candidate reaches the quota, the candidate with the fewest first preferences is eliminated and the second preferences on those ballots are transferred, and this continues until a candidate secures the quota.

All doubts and disputes regarding the election are decided by the Supreme Court, whose decision is final. The election cannot be challenged on the ground that the electoral college was incomplete. If the election is declared void, acts done by the President before the declaration are not invalidated.

Why Indirect Election?

Some members of the Constituent Assembly criticised indirect election as undemocratic, but it was chosen because it is in harmony with the parliamentary system, in which the President is only a nominal executive, and because direct election would have been costly and energy-consuming. Election by Parliament alone was not preferred because a Parliament dominated by one party would have chosen a candidate from that party and the President would not have represented the states. The present system makes the President a representative of the Union and the states equally. It was also pointed out that ‘proportional representation’ is a misnomer for a single vacancy, as it is better called a preferential or alternative vote, and that no voter has a single vote.

Presidential Elections So Far

Why Is This Topic Important?

• High-frequency topic Electoral college and voting method are asked almost every year
• Numbers Value of votes and quota calculations appear in Prelims
• Link to the 70th and 84th Amendments Both changed the process

What Came Next?

The next topic covers the term of office and eligibility for re-election.

Key People and Terms

• Electoral college Body that elects the President
• Single transferable vote Preferential voting with transfers
• Quota Votes needed to win
• Value of vote Weight of each elector’s vote
• Article 71 Disputes decided by the Supreme Court

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions on this topic usually ask about the rationale of indirect election. Use these points to add depth.

• Parliamentary harmony Nominal executive needs no direct mandate
• Federal balance Union and states equally represented
• Cost and scale Direct election would be costly
• Judicial finality Supreme Court decides disputes