1. The members nominated to either House of the Parliament or the Legislative Assemblies of States are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College.
2. Higher the number of elective Assembly seats, higher is the value of vote of each MLA of that State.
3. The value of vote of each MLA of Madhya Pradesh is greater than that of Kerala.
4. The value of vote of each MLA of Puducherry is higher than that of Arunachal Pradesh because the ratio of total population to total number of elective seats in Puducherry is greater as compared to Arunachal Pradesh.
How many of the above statements are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) Only three
(d) All four
Answer- a
Explanation:
According to Article 54 of the Constitution, the President of India shall be elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of (a) elected members of both Houses of Parliament and (b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States.
In this article and in article 55, “State” includes the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union territory of Puducherry.”
Accordingly, the electoral college for the Presidential Election now consists of (a) the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and (b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States, including the NCT of Delhi and the Union territory of Puducherry.
The nominated members of both the Houses of Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies of the States are not entitled to vote in the election of the President. Also, the members of the Legislative Councils in the States are not included in the electoral college for the election of the President.
Hence, statement 1 is incorrect.
For the purpose of calculation of value of votes, the Constitution (Eighty-fourth) Amendment Act, 2001 provides that until the relevant population figures for the first census to be taken after the year 2026 have been published, the population of the states for the purposes of calculation of value of votes for the Presidential Election shall mean the population as ascertained at the 1971-census.
Article 55 of the Constitution stipulates that, as far as practicable, there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different States at the election of the President.
For the purpose of securing such uniformity among the States inter se as well as parity between the States as a whole and the Union, the number of votes that each elected member of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly of each State is entitled to cast at such election shall be determined in the following manner:—
(a) every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a State shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total number of the elected members of the Assembly;
(b) if, after taking the said multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member referred to in (a) above shall be further increased by one;
(c) each elected member of either House of Parliament shall have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the State under sub-clauses (a) and (b) by the total number of elected members of both Houses of Parliament, fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.
Value of vote of each elected Member of Legislative Assembly of a State = The total population of the state/ (Total number of the elected members of the Assembly)*1000
Value of vote of each elected Member of Parliament = The total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States/ (The total number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament)*1000
Value of Votes of Elected MPs at the Presidential Election, 2022
• Value of vote of each Member of Parliament
Total number of elected MPs = Lok Sabha [543] + Rajya Sabha [233] = 776
Total value of votes of the elected MLAs of all the States = 5,43,231
Value of vote of each MP = 5,43,231 776 = 700
• Total value of votes of 776 Members of Parliament
700 x 776 = 5,43,200
• Total electors for the Presidential Election, 2022 = MLAs [4033] + MPs [776] = 4809
• Total value of 4809 electors for the Presidential Election, 2022 Total value of votes of 776 MPs and total value of votes of the elected MLAs of all the States = 5,43,200 + 5,43,231 = 10,86,431
Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.
Article 54: Election of President— The President of India is elected by the Members of an Electoral College consisting of (a) the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and (b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States [including National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry vide the Constitution (70th Amendment) Act, 1992.
- The nominated members of either House of Parliament or the Legislative Assemblies of State are not eligible to be included in the Electoral College. Hence, statement 1 is wrong.
Article 55: Manner of election of President: As far as practicable, there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different States at the election of the President. (2) For this purpose of securing such uniformity among the States inter se as well as parity between the States as a whole and the Union, the number of votes to which each elected member of Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly of each State is entitled to cast shall be determined in the following manner:
Value of vote of each elected Member of Legislative Assembly of a State = The total population of the state/ (Total number of the elected members of the Assembly)*1000
Value of vote of each elected Member of Parliament = The total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States/ (The total number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament)*1000
Hence, statement 3 is correct and statement 4 is incorrect.
Read: Previous Year UPSC Polity Questions (PYQs) With Explanation 2023