Presidential election in India 1987

R. Venkataraman

The presidential election in India in 1987 was the ninth presidential election in the history of independent India and took place on July 13, 1987. Was elected R. Venkataraman ( Congress Party ).

prehistory

In the previous election in 1982 , Giani Zail Singh was elected president at the instigation of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . This was considered an extremely loyal supporter of Indira Gandhi. To a certain extent, he proved his loyalty to the Nehru Gandhi family when, after the murder of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, without first consulting parliament, he named her son Rajiv Gandhi as her successor in the office of Prime Minister. The actions of the President and the change of office in the manner of a dynastic succession met with much criticism. However , Rajiv Gandhi was able to win the parliamentary elections that were then scheduled by a large majority. In the following period there was an increasing rift between Rajiv Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh, the exact reasons for which are unknown. Most likely the reasons were the disappointment of the president, who was himself a Sikh , about the passive or erratic actions of Rajiv Gandhi in the face of the ongoing political crisis in Punjab . The contact between the Prime Minister and the President was only sporadic and only by telephone. Rajiv Gandhi did not inform the President about visits abroad, did not consult him on important political issues and also tried to prevent the President from making state visits abroad. The president, an old congressional partisan, increasingly contacted the opposition and internal dissidents in the congress party. The rift became public and Rajiv Gandhi felt compelled to make a statement in parliament in March 1987, as the president's term of office was drawing to a close, denying that he had not informed the president. Singh then publicly replied that this was not in accordance with the facts ( "at variance with [the facts]" ) and listed a number of incidents. As a result, a meeting between the Prime Minister and the President was arranged in April 1987. Gandhi and his advisors apparently feared that Singh's crisis in the Congress Party, which was caused by various corruption cases, including the Bofors scandal that unfolded from April 1987 onwards, led to the resignation of numerous prominent dissidents (including VP Singh ), could use to depose Rajiv Gandhi, and to appoint another as his successor and to split the Congress party.

Sections of the opposition wanted to take advantage of the rift between the prime minister and president and declared their readiness to support Giani Zail Singh's renewed candidacy. However, the communists spoke out against it and Singh refused to run again due to the lack of support. Under pressure from the communists, most of the opposition parties finally agreed on VR Krishna Iyer , a retired former Supreme Court judge, as a joint candidate. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not agree with this selection of candidates and the opposition remained divided.

The Congress Party under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi decided on the previous Vice President R. Venkataraman as the candidate for the presidency. Lawyer Mithilesh Kumar was appointed as the third independent candidate .

Choice and results

→ Main article : Electoral College (India)

The term of office of Giani Zail Singh ended on July 24, 1987. The election dates were announced on June 10. Candidate proposals could be submitted until June 24, 1987. A decision was made on the admission of candidates to the election on July 25, 1987. The election took place on July 13, 1987, and the vote was counted on July 16, 1987.

The Electoral College was composed of 543 members of the Lok Sabha and 233 members of the Rajya Sabha, as well as members of the 25 legislative assemblies of the states . The number of parliamentarians had increased somewhat since the 1982 election, as the union territories of Goa and Mizoram had been elevated to federal states. The electoral college comprised a total of 4,695 parliamentarians. The voting weight of the parliamentarians from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was 702, that of the representatives from the states varied between 7 ( Sikkim ) and 208 ( Uttar Pradesh ). Shortly before the election, a controversy arose as to whether 22 members of the Punjab Parliament, who had violated the rules of procedure and were therefore disqualified by the speaker , were allowed to vote. Ultimately, the Supreme Court decided that these votes should be counted. In addition, there was speculation in the press that Mithilesh Kumar, the third independent candidate, who was of advanced age and in poor health, might die in the run-up to the election or be assassinated. The election would then have been declared invalid by President Singh, who could possibly have overturned Rajiv Gandhi's government. Mithilesh Kumar was then assigned an extensive police escort and constant medical care to watch over what food he was eating. Ultimately, he survived the crucial phase before the election unscathed.

The result was the following:

candidate	be right	percent
R. Venkataraman	740.148	72.28
VR Krishna Iyer	281,550	27.50
Mithilesh Kumar	2.223	0.22
total	1,023,921	100.0

R. Venkataraman was declared elected on July 16, 1987 and took office on July 25, 1987.

The losing candidate, Mithilesh Kumar, tried to challenge the validity of the election, but the Supreme Court rejected it on October 16, 1987.

Web links

• Election to the Office of the President 2012 (pdf, detailed explanation of the electoral process based on the 2012 election, with election results of all presidential elections up to 2007, English), Indian Electoral Commission 2012

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Stanley Kochanek, Robert Hardgrave: India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation. Wadsworth Inc Fulfillment, February 2007 edition, ISBN 0495007498 . Pp. 71/72
2. ↑ CG Manoj: 'Rajiv Gandhi didn't take calls from President after 1984 riots broke out'. The Indian Express, January 30, 2014, accessed June 13, 2015 . 
3. ^ Zail Singh's daughter reveals, how the then President was helpless during 1984 riots. indiatvnews.com, February 4, 2014, accessed June 13, 2015 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Arunav Sinha: Pressure was on me to disqualify a candidate: Subhash Kashyap. The Times of India, July 19, 2012, accessed June 13, 2015 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Election to the Office of the President 2012. (PDF) Indian Election Commission, 2012, accessed on March 27, 2015 (English, detailed explanation of the election procedure based on the 2012 election). 
6. ↑ Mithilesh Kumar vs Sri R. Venkataraman & Ors on October 16, 1987. indiankanoon.org, accessed June 13, 2015 (English).