BENGALURU: Presidential polls are just 9 weeks away & political observers feel that when nation needs a healing touch, MPs, MLAs should choose wisely & elect a person who is diligent & has regard for the letter and spirit of the Constitution
With the election to the post of President of India just nine weeks away, there is intense speculation as to who will succeed Ram Nath Kovind at Raisina Hill. Political experts and the general public want someone with integrity and calibre, the likes of Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who occupied the top office during the first few years of Independence, and conducted themselves with great dignity.
But it has not always been such glorious personalities who have become heads of state of the Indian Union. Political observers say there have been many “yes men”, while harsher critics point to other “rubber stamp Presidents”. While the country has faced many issues challenging the letter and spirit of the Constitution, one would have expected a “statesman” President to have a word with the ruling establishment or a “healing” touch for the nation. But that has not happened in a while, political observers say.
Association for Democratic Reforms founder Prof Trilochan Shastri said, “We started out with men of very high calibre, be it Dr Babu Rajendra Prasad or Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. I think it is high time we have men of such character.”
It is not as if the Constituent Assembly did not foresee the risk of “rubber stamp” Presidents. It stated, “Since the membership of both Houses of Parliament is likely to be dominated by one single party, the election of the President merely by Members of Parliament could make him a nominee of the ruling party like the Prime Minister. Such a President could not represent the constituent states of the union.’’
The Constitution also provides protection from the other extreme of a President turning autocratic. “It is necessary for the President to exercise his/her functions in accordance with the advice of the council of ministers, according to the 42nd Amendment Act,’’ it states.
If the President is too independent, then too there could be issues. This has been addressed this way, “If the President was to be directly elected by the people, he could become a rival centre of power to the council of ministers. This would be against the parliamentary system with ministerial responsibilities.’’
Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made this point clear, when he said in the Constituent Assembly, “We could not have a directly elected President and not give him real powers.”
Process of Prez polls
The Constitution lays down the process of electing a President. It is an indirect election, where the electoral college consists of elected members of both Houses of Parliament and elected representatives of legislative assemblies of states. Nominated members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and state assemblies are not part of the electoral college.
The presidential candidate is proposed by 50 members of the electoral college and seconded by 50 more members. During first few years of Independence, the number of proposers and seconders was 10. The numbers were changed in June 1997 through an ordinance which later became an Act in August that year.
The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. It is a secret ballot, though parties issue whips. Every elected member of the Assembly who votes has a weightage which is arrived at by dividing the population by total members of elected members of the Assembly. “The weightage of each Member of Parliament is the total number of voters divided by total members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.’’In Karnataka, each MLA will have a value of 131 per vote, while in UP, it is 208. The smallest value for an MLA is in Sikkim, where it is just seven. Karnataka’s total vote value is 29,344. Each MP has a value of 708 per vote.
Who will be the President?
Most presidential elections have thrown up surprises. While political watchers thought it would be BJP veteran LK Advani in 2017, Ram Nath Kovind, then Governor of Bihar, was elected. This time, the frontrunners are Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Names of some others are also doing the rounds.
In the coming election, NDA leads the vote tally at 5.42 lakh, while opposition parties together have 4.49 lakh. The YSR Congress and Biju Janata Dal have not identified with either group, while together they account for 75,528 votes and they can embarrass the government by putting their weight behind opposition parties.
From the opposition ranks, the names of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are being floated, but names will definitely be added to the list. The half-way mark is 5,49,452, given 13 vacancies in the Lok Sabha and many more in state assemblies.
Though some may think that the elevation of Venkaiah Naidu is an obvious move, there could be a twist in the tale. He can manage votes from YSR Congress too by appealing to the Telugu pride.Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is the other top runner and she is likely to get the backing from Karnataka, being an MP from here, Andhra Pradesh, as her husband Parakala Prabhakar is from Nellore, and Tamil Nadu, as she is a Tamilian. NDA has only 13,200 votes in Tamil Nadu, while others have 27,984 votes, which could come to her kitty if she is fielded.
At the same time, it is said that there is a possibility of elevating Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to the position of Vice-President. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, he had quit the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet after the Shah Bano case and has served in NDA.