The Election Commission of India announced on Thursday that the 16th Presidential Election 2022 will take place on July 18 and the counting of votes will be taken up on July 21 in Delhi. The new President will take oath on July 25. At a press conference in New Delhi, the EC announced that the nomination for the Presidential Polls will be filed on June 29 and its scrutiny will be done on June 30.
President Ram Nath Kovind’s tenure is set to end on July 24 and as per Article 62 of the Constitution, an election for the next president must be held before the completion of the incumbent’s term.
“Election shall be held with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting shall be by secret ballot. The elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates, only with a particular pen, provided by the designated official,” CEC Rajiv Kumar said at the press meet.
The poll watchdog said that the nominations will be filed from 11 am to 3 pm. Issuing guidelines for the voting process, the EC said that in order to cast the votes, the poll panel will give a pen and no other pen will be accepted. Elections will be held in the Legislative Assemblies and in the Parliament House, where MPs and MLAs can cast their votes anywhere by giving information and taking prior approval of 10 days.
The EC further said that Covid-19 protocols will have to be strictly adhered to during the entire election process.
“The counting of votes will be held in New Delhi under the supervision of the Returning Officer. On completion of counting, the Return of Election will be issued by the Returning Officer,” the CEC said. He added that no whip will be permissible by any political party for the election.
The total number of electors, as per EC, is numbered at 4,809, including 776 MPs and 4,033 MLAs.
The presidential elections in 2017 were held on July 17, while the declaration of the winner was made three days later on July 20. A President in India is elected by the members of the electoral college comprising of elected members of both the houses — Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The electoral college for Presidential Polls
The electoral college for the presidential election consists of the 776 MPs of the Lok Sabha (543) and Rajya Sabha (233), as well as MLAs of state Assemblies and the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry. The total votes are counted on the basis of their value, which varies from state to state, with an Uttar Pradesh MLA carrying the highest value followed by Maharashtra and West Bengal.
The recent Assembly elections, in which the BJP put up a spectacular performance in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, have cemented the BJP’s edge in the presidential elections. However, ally JD(U)’s past remains much of a concern for the saffron party.
Adding to JD(U)’s record of going against the ‘coalition dharma’, the souring relationship between the two NDA partners may have a bearing on the forthcoming presidential election. The Nitish Kumar-led party went against its coalition partners in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections.
JD(U) was a part of the NDA during the 2012 presidential election. NDA had supported PA Sangma’s candidature while UPA had fielded Pranab Mukherjee as its candidate. Going against NDA, JD(U) had voted in favour of Mukherjee who won the election.
In the 2017 presidential election, JD(U) was a part of UPA which had fielded former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar as its candidate. On the other side, NDA’s candidate was incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind, who was the then Bihar governor. In a surprise move, JD(U) went with NDA and voted for Kovind, praising his tenure as the state governor.
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