New Delhi: The voting to elect the 15th President of India started at 10 AM. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ex-PM Manmohan Sing are among those who cast their votes in the beginning. However, Manmohan Singh was seen in a wheelchair due to age-related issues.
In the first 1.5 hours of the Presidential poll, 350 electors cast their votes. Members are casting their votes in a polling booth set up inside the Parliament premises.
Notably, the counting of votes will take place on July 21 while the oath-taking ceremony will take place on July 25. However, the election to choose a new President is different from a general election in the country.
let’s find out what makes the Presidential polls different from the general election in the points below here:
1. Unlike Lok Sabha, citizens of India do not directly take part in the Presidential election. Instead of citizens, the representative of the people — MPs and MLAs — take part in the election. In the election, the members of the national capital territory of the Delhi Assembly and the union territory of the Puducherry Assembly also take part in the election.
This year, the electoral college has parliament’s 776 members, and 4033 members of legislative assemblies.
2. Election Commission allots a room in the Parliament for the presidential election and a room in all state legislative assembly secretariats.
3. The value of the votes of MLAs is decided based on the population of the states. To calculate the value of one MLA’s vote, the EC divided the total population of the state by the total number of elected members, followed by the division of the quotient by 1,000.
4. Value of MPs is calculated after adding the total value of all MLAs of states. After this, the sum is divided by the total MPs {543 (LS) + 233 (RS). At present, the total MPs are 776, excluding the nominated members.
5. MLA’s vote value varies as per the population of each state. However, the value of MPs is the same.
Notably, all legislatures are free to vote for any candidate as they are not bound to vote along party lines. In the presidential election, the anti-defection law does not apply. As the election is conducted through ballot paper, electors also get a special pen for valid voting.
