President is the executive head of State. The constitution confers all the executive powers of the union government in him. He exercises these powers either directly or through officers subordinate to him.
Details of President Election Process
The president is indirectly elected through an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both the houses of the Parliament and elected members of state legislative assemblies. The constitution ensures that as far as practicable there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation among the states as a whole and the union. This is achieved by dividing the population of state by 1000 and the quotient obtained is again divided by the number of total members of state legislature. If by this division the remainder is 500 or above, it will be counted as one and the vote of each member is increased by one.
Likewise the number of votes of each members of parliament shall be determined by dividing the total number of votes of legislative assemblies of the states by the total number of members of parliament. If in this division the remainder exceeds one half, it will be counted as one.
The election is held through the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. The candidate receiving absolute majority of the first preference votes is declared elected. However, if no candidate receives an absolute majority of the first preference votes, the ballots of the candidate securing the least number of first preference votes is cancelled and his second preference votes are transferred. This process is followed till some candidate secures an absolute majority.
President Election Process of Year 2012
In the 14th Presidential election which was held in july 2012, the existing Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee defeated the nearest rival P A Sangma who was also a former Lok Sabha speaker. While Pranab Mukherjee was backed by UPA, Bhairon Singh Shekhwat was supported by opposition NDA.
President Election Process of Year 2007
In the 13th Presidential election held in July 2007, Pratibha Patil defeated the nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat with absolute majority. After this presidential election process Pratibha Patil became the first female President of India. While Pratibha Patil was backed by UPA, Bhairon Singh Shekhwat was supported by opposition NDA.
President Election Process of Year 2002
In the 12th presidential election held in July 2002, there was a direct contest between Dr Abdul Kalam and Capt Lakshmi Sehgal. All the political parties except left parties supported Dr Kalam. Of the 4611 valid votes polled, Dr Kalam secured 4152 votes while Capt Lakshmi Sehgal got only 459 votes. Thus Dr Abdul Kalam was elected by absolute majority.