1997 presidential election in India

KR Narayanan, the President-Elect

The 1997 presidential election in India was the 11th presidential election since independence and took place on July 14, 1997. The previous Vice President KR Narayanan was elected . He was the first Dalit in this office.

prehistory

The term of office of President Shankar Dayal Sharma , elected in 1992, ended on July 24, 1997. In the Electoral College , which elects the president under the Indian constitution, no party grouping had a clear majority. In the previous election in 1992 , there were proposals to elect a Dalit, an “untouchable” person to the highest office of the state. In a kind of compromise, Naryanan was then elected to the office of Vice President. The vice-presidency had already been the stepping stone to the presidency in many cases in the past, so it made sense that this time Naryanan would be elected to the presidency. The non-partisan Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Forum of Parliamentarians , comprising 150 members of the Indian Parliament, led by G. Venkatswamy ( Congress Party ) initially spoke out against Narayanan being nominated as a candidate, as Narayanan had never advocated the Dalit cause. However, the opposition front increasingly crumbled, also because no other suitable consensus candidate was in sight.

Opposition to Narayanan came from the extreme Hindu nationalist camp. The Vishva Hindu Parishad accused Narayanan of not standing up for the Dalits throughout his life and of not succeeding either BR Ambedkar or Mahatma Gandhi . In truth, Narayanan is "anti-Hindu" and a crypto- Christian . The Maharashtra- based Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena also disagreed with Narayanan as a candidate. The opposition finally agreed on TN Seshan , the former Chief Election Commissioner of India from 1990 to 1996, who had gained non-partisan reputation by significantly increasing the efficiency, transparency and legal compliance of the Indian Electoral Commission. However, Seshan was not without controversy due to his often less diplomatic and considerate demeanor during his tenure as election officer.

After the relevant bodies of the Congress Party and the Janata Dal- led United Front (UF) had agreed to support Narayanan in June 1997, this was announced at an official meeting between Sitaram Kesri , the President of the Congress Party and N. Chandrababu Naidu as the representative of UF officially announced on June 16, 1997. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorized Atal Bihari Vajpayee to make a decision on behalf of the BJP. On June 20, 1997, the BJP also announced that it would support Narayanan in the election.

Election mode and election procedure

Distribution of votes by region

→ Main article : Electoral College (India)

The voting weights in the electoral college were based on the 1971 census. The voting weight of the 543 MPs of Lok Sabha and the 233 MPs of the Rajya Sabha was 708. The voting weight of the 4072 MPs of the 27 state parliaments (including the union territories of Delhi and Pondicherry ) varied according to the population.

The election dates were announced on June 9, 1992. Candidate proposals could be submitted by June 23, 1992. On June 24, 1992, a decision was made about the admission of the nominated candidates, who could withdraw their candidacy until June 26, 1992. The actual election took place on July 14, 1992, and the votes were counted on July 17, 1992.

The result was the following:

candidate	Weighted votes	in percent
KR Narayanan	956.290	94.97
TN Seshan	50,631	5.03
total	1.006.921	100.0

The following table shows the voting behavior of the members of the individual parliaments. Narayanan received a clear majority in all states. Only in Maharashtra (35.7%) and Meghalaya (18.9%) was his rival candidate Seshan able to gain larger shares of the vote.

Results by Member of Parliament and the State and Union Territory Parliaments

houses of Parliament	Number of MPs	Voting weight	KR Narayanan			TN Seshan			Invalid votes
			be right	weighted	in% †	be right	weighted	in% †	be right	weighted	in% ††
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha	776	708	676	478,608	96.3	26th	18,408	3.7	32	22,656	4.4
Andhra Pradesh	294	148	254	37,592	96.6	9	1,332	3.4	17th	2,516	6.1
Arunachal Pradesh	60	8th	56	448	100.0	0	0	0.0	3	24	5.1
Assam	126	116	110	12,760	95.7	5	580	4.3	1	116	0.9
Bihar	324	174	285	49,590	97.3	8th	1,392	2.7	15th	2,610	4.9
Goa	40	20th	35	700	94.6	2	40	5.4	3	60	7.5
Gujarat	182	147	156	22,932	93.4	11	1,617	6.6	7th	1,029	4.0
Haryana	90	112	77	8,624	96.3	3	336	3.8	6th	672	7.0
Himachal Pradesh	68	51	63	3.213	100.0	0	0	0.0	2	102	3.1
Jammu and Kashmir	87	72	74	5,328	98.7	1	72	1.3	4th	288	5.1
Karnataka	224	131	191	25,021	93.6	13	1,703	6.4	11	1,441	5.1
Kerala	140	152	135	20,520	100.0	0	0	0.0	2	304	1.5
Madhya Pradesh	320	130	296	38,480	97.0	9	1,170	3.0	13	1,690	4.1
Maharashtra	288	175	173	30,275	64.3	96	16,800	35.7	1	175	0.4
Manipur	60	18th	52	936	92.9	4th	72	7.1	0	0	0.0
Meghalaya	60	17th	43	731	81.1	10	170	18.9	4th	68	7.0
Mizoram	40	8th	34	272	94.4	2	16	5.6	0	0	0.0
Nagaland	60	9	55	495	96.5	2	18th	3.5	0	0	0.0
Orissa	147	149	132	19,668	100.0	0	0	0.0	9	1,341	6.4
Punjab	117	116	106	12,296	99.1	1	116	0.9	7th	812	6.1
Rajasthan	200	129	174	22,446	97.8	4th	516	2.2	12	1,548	6.3
Sikkim	32	7th	31	217	100.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0
Tamil Nadu	234	176	229	40,304	99.1	2	352	0.9	2	352	0.9
Tripura	60	26th	59	1,534	100.0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0.0
Uttar Pradesh	425	208	377	78,416	94.0	24	4,992	6.0	7th	1,456	1.7
West Bengal	294	151	272	41,072	98.2	5	755	1.8	4th	604	1.4
Delhi	70	58	58	3,364	95.1	3	174	4.9	8th	464	11.6
Pondicherry	30th	16	28	448	100.0	0	0	0.0	1	16	3.4
total	4,848	-	4.231	956.290	94.6	240	50,631	5.4	171	22,656	3.7

^† As a percentage of the valid votes. ^†† As a percentage of all votes.

KR Narayanan was declared elected on July 22, 1997 and took office on July 25, 1997.

Change of the modalities of the presidential election

After the election, the modalities of the presidential elections, which are laid down in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Act, 1952 and had already been changed before the 1974 presidential election with the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974 , were again changed by an ordinance, August 1997 was decided by the Indian Parliament, modified. This regulation included the following changes:

• for nominations in presidential elections, not 10, but 50 proponents ( “proposers” ) and instead of 10 in the future 50 supporters ( “seconders” ) were required.
• the fee to be paid on proposals has been increased from 2,500 to 15,000 Indian rupees.

The aim of these changes was to increase the hurdles to running for president in order to prevent candidates who seemed to have no chance from the start.

Web links

• Constitution of India , the Indian Constitution on the Government of India website
• 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 c d} Election to the Office of the President 2012. (PDF) Indian Election Commission, 2012, accessed on March 27, 2015 (English, detailed explanation of the election process based on the 2012 election). 
2. ↑ The Rediff Interview / G Venkatswamy: 'How can we even think of electing a brahmin as President?' rediff.com, May 23, 1997, accessed March 27, 2015 . 
3. ↑ The Rediff Interview / H Hanumanthappa: 'Narayanan should be made President'. rediff.com, May 22, 1997, accessed June 5, 2015 . 
4. ↑ George Iype: Dalit Hindu or Christian? rediff.com, 1997, accessed June 5, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Gilmartin, David ( North Carolina State University ), 2008: "One Day's Sultan: TN Seshan and the Reform of the Election Commission in the 1990s". PDF ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ GC Shekhar: Autumn of Al-Seshan: Lest we forget how bad it was till he cleaned it up. The Telegraph (Calcutta), April 7, 2014, accessed on June 5, 2015 (English). 
7. ↑ Harinder Baweja: Stooping to conquer: In his quest for President's job, TN Seshan projects a mellowed persona. indiatoday.com, May 31, 1997, accessed June 5, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Narayanan is Congress-UF candidate for Presidency. rediff.com, June 16, 1997, accessed June 5, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Bjp Announces Support For Narayanan. June 21, 1997, accessed June 5, 2015 . 
10. ↑ FINAL RESULT: Shri KR Narayanan declared elected for the office of President of India. Lok Sabha Secretariat, compiled by: National Informatics Center, 1997, archived from the original on August 4, 1997 ; accessed on June 5, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Election of President, Vice-President and Members of Parliament: Chapter V. (pdf) (No longer available online.) Lok Sabha Secretariat, archived from the original on July 28, 2014 ; accessed on June 5, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.