Presidential election in India 2002

The 2002 Indian presidential election took place on July 15, 2002. It was the twelfth presidential election in India since independence. The independent APJ Abdul Kalam was elected by a large majority .

prehistory

The term of office of the 1997 elected President KR Narayanan ( Congress Party ) ended on July 24, 2002. In the Electoral College , which elects the president according to the Indian constitution, there was no clear majority at that time. However, the BJP with the party coalition of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by it, together with the parties related to the government Telugu Desam , AIADMK , Nationalist Congress Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had slightly more votes than Congress Party, Samajwadi Party , Rashtriya Janata Dal , the Left parties and other smaller parties taken together.

The now 82-year-old Narayanan indicated that he would also be ready for a second term. He initially found support from the Congress Party, the communist parties and individual politicians, such as the former Prime Minister VP Singh . Prime Minister Vajpayee ( BJP ) publicly ruled out Narayanan's second term on May 30, 2002. One argument put forward was that in the past three decades no president had held two terms in a row and that Narayan had already been vice-president from 1992 to 1997 before his presidency. The opposition parties and Narayanan himself suspected that the BJP establishment wanted to get rid of the little esteemed Dalit president. Afterwards, various politicians on the part of the NDA entered into discussion as candidates, including Farooq Abdullah , the party president of the National Conference from Jammu and Kashmir (which met resistance from Shiv Sena ), the governor of Maharashtra P. C. Alexander , as an initial BJP candidate (who was rejected by the Congress Party), the previous Vice President Krishan Kant , who then became a BJP candidate, and other people. On June 10, 2002, Vajpayee informed Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi that the NDA wanted to nominate APJ Abdul Kalam as a candidate. Kalam was non-party and not a politician, but a scientist or technician. However, he was well known and popular with the Indian public because, as an aerospace and missile technician, he had played a key role in the development of medium-range ballistic missiles that could also be armed with nuclear warheads. He, the "missile man" , was considered the father of the Indian missile program.

Vajpayee's proposal immediately met with approval from the Hindu nationalist camp ( Sangh Parivar , Shiv Sena, BJP). The day after the Vajpayee's announcement, Telugu Desam, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party also spoke out in favor of Kalam. Following these developments, President Narayanan announced that he did not want to seek a second term in office. On June 13, 2002, the congress party allied Rashtriya Janata Dal and the congress party itself declared their support for Kalam.

The governing parties called on the Left Front parties to rally behind the common consensus candidate Kalam. In a joint statement on June 12, 2002, the two communist parties CPM and CPI , as well as the Forward Bloc (AIFB) and the RSP declared that they did not want to support Abdul Kalam. Kalam does not offer sufficient guarantees to act as guardian of the constitution; he also lacks political experience. Instead, on June 14, 2002, the aforementioned parties presented Lakshmi Sahgal to the public as their joint candidate for the presidency. The 87-year-old Sahgal was a doctor of medicine who had participated in the Indian liberation movement at the time of British India and had fought as a woman with the military rank of colonel from 1943 to 1945 in the Indian liberation army under Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose or in the medical service had been active. After being a prisoner of war for a short time, she began to practice as a doctor, working primarily for the less well-off. She enjoyed considerable prestige throughout India. Ultimately, Lakshmi Sahgal was supported in the election by CPM, CPI, AIFB, RSP and Janata Dal (Secular) .

Election process and result

See also : Electoral College (India)

The voting weights in the electoral college were based on the 1971 census. The electoral college consisted of the 543 elected members of the Lok Sabha and the 233 indirectly elected members of the Rajya Sabha , each with a voting weight of 708, while the voting weight of the 4,120 MPs from the 28 states and two union territories Delhi and Pondicherry ranged from 7 ( Sikkim ) and 208 ( Uttar Pradesh ) moved. The electoral college comprised a total of 4,896 members.

The election dates were announced on June 11, 2002. Candidate proposals could be submitted by June 25, 2002. On June 26, 2002, a decision was made on the admission of the nominated candidates, who could withdraw their candidacy until June 28, 2002. Only Kalam and Sahgal were allowed to vote because all the other nominations had formal errors (e.g. non-payment of the fee, non-certification, insufficient number of supporters, etc.). The election took place on July 15, 2002 and on July 18, 2002 the vote was counted.

4,785 MPs cast their votes, which corresponds to a voter turnout of 97.7%. 174 votes (0.6%) were invalid.

Majorities by state: Abdul Kalam Lakshmi Sahgal



As expected, Kalam won the election by a wide margin. Kalam received 922,884 weighted votes (89.58%) out of 1,030,250 and Sahgal received 107,366 (10.42%). Kalam got the majority of votes in all states and union territories except West Bengal and Tripura . Sahgal did not receive a single vote in 6 states - Haryana , Arunachal Pradesh , Chhattisgarh , Mizoram , Nagaland and Sikkim - and the union territory of Pondicherry, but was able to win practically all the votes of the parties in the 3 states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the strongholds of the communists who promised to support them. In total, it received around 17,000 weighted votes more than would have been numerically expected from the parties that supported it.

Because of the relatively high number of invalid votes (42 from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha alone), it was speculated that this was an expression of dissatisfaction with the candidate within the NDA party alliance. Abdul Kalam appeared to the ideological faction within the BJP to be too moderate and they had voted invalidly in protest.

The following table shows the results by state.

MPs		Voting weight	Votes (total)	Weighted votes (total)	Votes for Abdul Kalam		Votes for Lakshmi Sahgal		Invalid votes		Valid votes
houses of Parliament	number				number	weighted	number	weighted	number	weighted	number	weighted
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha	776	708	760	538.080	638	451.704	80	56,640	42	29,736	718	508.344
Andhra Pradesh	294	148	283	41,884	264	39,072	2	296	17th	2,516	266	39,368
Arunachal Pradesh	60	8th	57	456	57	456	0	0	0	0	57	456
Assam	126	116	119	13,804	113	13,108	1	116	5	580	114	13,224
Bihar	243	173	234	40,482	215	37.195	17th	2,941	2	346	232	40.136
Chhattisgarh	90	129	90	11,610	85	10,965	0	0	5	645	85	10,965
Goa	40	20th	39	780	34	680	3	60	2	40	37	740
Gujarat	182	147	179	26,313	174	25,578	2	294	3	441	176	25,872
Haryana	90	112	86	9,632	86	9,632	0	0	0	0	86	9,632
Himachal Pradesh	68	51	64	3,264	62	3,162	1	51	1	51	63	3.213
Jammu and Kashmir	87	72	78	5,616	72	5,184	2	144	4th	288	74	5,328
Jharkhand	81	176	79	13,904	74	13,024	5	880	0	0	79	13,904
Karnataka	224	131	220	28,820	202	26,462	13	1,703	5	655	215	28,165
Kerala	140	152	138	20,976	97	14,744	39	5,928	2	304	136	20,672
Madhya Pradesh	230	131	229	29,999	216	28,296	2	262	11	1,441	218	28,558
Maharashtra	288	175	280	49,000	264	46,200	9	1,575	7th	1,225	273	47,775
Manipur	60	18th	58	1,044	50	900	4th	72	4th	72	54	972
Meghalaya	60	17th	56	952	53	901	1	17th	2	34	54	918
Mizoram	40	8th	40	320	40	320	0	0	0	0	42	320
Nagaland	60	9	60	540	54	486	0	0	6th	54	54	486
Orissa	147	149	146	21,754	130	19,370	12	1,788	4th	596	142	21,158
Punjab	117	116	110	12,760	87	10.092	9	1,044	14th	1,624	96	1.1136
Rajasthan	200	129	197	25,413	189	24,381	2	258	6th	774	191	24,639
Sikkim	32	7th	32	224	30th	210	0	0	2	14th	30th	210
Tamil Nadu	234	176	233	41,111	217	38.192	10	1,760	6th	1,056	227	39,952
Tripura	60	26th	60	1,560	17th	442	41	1,066	2	52	58	1,508
Uttaranchal	70	64	69	4,416	63	4.032	3	192	3	192	66	4.224
Uttar Pradesh	403	208	397	82,576	386	80.288	2	416	9	1,872	388	80,704
West Bengal	294	151	292	44.092	90	13,590	197	29,747	5	755	287	43,337
Delhi	70	58	70	4,060	65	3,770	2	116	3	174	67	3,886
Pondicherry	30th	16	30th	480	28	448	0	0	2	32	28	448
TOTAL	4,896		4,785	1,075,819	4.152	922.884	459	107,366	174	45,569	4,611	1,030,250

Abdul Kalam was declared elected on July 18, 2002 and took office as President on July 25, 2002.

Web links

• 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). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{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). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Monu Nalapat: Sonia to Vajpayee: Anyone but Alexander. rediff.com, May 18, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
3. ^ CPI (M) backs Narayanan's second term as President. zeenews, May 14, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Narayanan has 'open mind' for second term. rediff.com, May 28, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
5. ↑ No 2nd term for Narayanan: PM. The Tribune, May 31, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Obituary: KR Narayanan. BBC News, November 9, 2005, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
7. ^ Syed Amin Jafri: Krishan Kant final choice of NDA for President: Report. rediff.com, June 8, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
8. ^ Sangh Parivar, Sena welcome Kalam's candidature. rediff.com, June 10, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
9. ^ Naidu appeals to opposition for consensus. rediff.com, June 11, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
10. ^ NCP supports Kalam's candidature for presidentship. rediff.com, June 11, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
11. ↑ SP to support Kalam for President's post. Rediff.com, June 11, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Narayanan opts out, field clear for Kalam. rediff.com, June 11, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
13. ^ Anand Mohan Sahay: RJD supports Kalam's candidature. rediff.com, June 13, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
14. ^ Shahid Abbas: Congress extends support to Kalam's candidature for President. rediff.com, June 13, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
15. ^ Left parties to oppose Abdul Kalam. rediff.com, June 12, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Left Front nominates Col Lakshmi Sahgal as presidential candidate. rediff.com, June 14, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
17. ^ ^{A b} Abdul Kalam elected President. The Hindu, July 19, 2002, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
18. ^ ^{A b} A PJ Abdul Kalam elected 11th President of India. rediff.com, July 18, 2002, accessed May 3, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Presidential Election 2002. Election Commission of India, accessed on May 3, 2012 (the original page is unfortunately no longer available, the figures are from en: WP).