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History & Civics

The President of India shall be elected by the members of an Electoral College. In this context answer the following questions:

(a) What reasons were given for adopting the method of Indirect Election for Presidential Elections?

(b) How is the Electoral College for Presidential elections constituted and how is the value of vote of a Member of a Legislative Assembly and Members of Parliament determined?

President & Vice-President

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Answer

(a) Four reasons were given for adopting the method of Indirect Election for Presidential election-

  1. The power really resided in the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister and the Union Parliament and not in the President as such. Therefore, it would be an anomaly if the President is to be elected directly by the people and is not given any real power.
  2. The framers of the Constitution wanted the Presidential election to remain a quiet and dignified affair. They knew that tremendous loss of time, energy and money would be involved in a direct Presidential election.
  3. It would be difficult to provide an electoral machinery for an election in which millions of people would have to participate. Such a complex system of voting is often difficult to understand.
  4. A direct election would place too much of power in the hands of the masses, many of whom being illiterate even now.

(b) The President is elected by the members of an Electoral College consisting of-

  1. The elected members of both Houses of Parliament
  2. The elected Members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States.

The number of votes which each elected MP or MLA is entitled to cast shall be determined in the following manner:

  1. Value of the Vote of each member of a State Legislative Assembly is determined by dividing the population of the State concerned by the total number of elected members of the Assembly. The quotient so obtained is divided by one thousand.
  2. Each elected Member of Parliament shall have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the total number of votes assigned to MLAs of the States by the total number of the elected Members of Parliament.
    Value of the Vote of an MP is as under: Total number of Votes assigned to MLAs of all States / Total number of elected MPs

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