Consider the following statements in respect of election to the President of India: 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. [2023]

Consider the following statements in respect of election to the President of India:

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.
Higher the number of elective Assembly seats, higher is the value of vote of each MLA of that State.
The value of vote of each MLA of Madhya Pradesh is greater than that of Kerala.
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?

Only one
Only two
Only three
All four

Explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect

The manner of election of the President is provided in Article 55 of the Constitution. The President is chosen by an electoral college using the system of proportional representation through a single transferable vote.
The Electoral College consist of:
- the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and
- 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 (Seventieth Amendment) Act, 1992 (Article 54).
Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of state Legislative Councils, are not part of the electoral college.

Statement 2 is incorrect

The higher the number of elective assembly seats, the higher the value of the vote of each MLA of that state.
To understand this, take an example of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka:

Name of State	Number of Assembly seats	Population (1971 Census)	Value of vote of each MLA	Total value of votes for the state (B x D)
A	B	C	D	E
Andhra Pradesh	175	2,78,00,586	159	27,825
Karnataka	224	2,92,99,014	131	29,344
West Bengal	294	4,43,12,011	151	44,394

In this example, although Karnataka has more assembly seats (224) than Andhra Pradesh (175), the value of each MLA’s vote in Karnataka (131) is lower than in Andhra Pradesh (159). This shows that simply having more assembly seats does not increase the value of each MLA’s vote.

Additional Information

The Presidential election uses a special voting method to tally the votes. A different voting weightage is assigned to an MP and an MLA. The value of each MLA’s vote is determined based on the population of their state and the number of MLAs. Due to a Constitutional Amendment passed in 2002, the population of the state, as per the 1971 census, is taken for the calculation.
An example to understand the value of the vote of an MLA:
Total population of Andhra Pradesh (1971 census): 2,78,00,586
Total no of seats in the state Assembly: 175

A screenshot showing a mathematical formula calculating the value of vote of each MLA as Total Population divided by 1000 times Number of Seats. The calculation uses a total population of 27,800,586 and 175 seats, resulting in a vote value of approximately 159

The total value of all members of each state assembly is calculated by multiplying the number of elective seats in the assembly by the number of votes for each member – for example – Andhra Pradesh – 175×159=27,825.
The total value of votes of all the states added together is divided by the total number of elected MPs of Parliament (Lok Sabha 543 + Rajya Sabha 233) to get the value of votes of each MP.
India’s sixth President, Mr. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy who served from 1977 to 1982 was the only President to be elected unopposed.

Statement 3 is incorrect

Name of State	Number of Assembly seats	Population (1971 Census)	Value of the vote of each MLA	Total value of votes for the state (B x D)
A	B	C	D	E
Kerala	140	2,13,47,375	152	21,280
Madhya Pradesh	230	3,00,16,625	131	30,130

This also answers the 2^nd statement that a higher number of elective assembly seats does not necessarily lead to a higher value of the vote for each MLA of that state.

Statement 4 is correct

Name of State	Number of Assembly seats	Population (1971 Census)	Value of vote of each MLA	Total value of votes for the state (B x D)
A	B	C	D	E
Puducherry	30	4,71,707	16	480
Arunachal Pradesh	60	4,67,511	8	480

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.