Presidential election in India 2007

Pratibha Patil (2012)

The 2007 presidential election in India took place on July 19, 2007. It was the thirteenth election of the president in India since independence. The candidate of the Congress Party , Pratibha Patil, was elected . She was the first woman in this office.

prehistory

The term of office of President APJ Abdul Kalam , elected in 2002, ended on July 24, 2007. Discussions about the possible successor began towards the end of his term of office.

On June 18, 2007, the United National Progressive Alliance , a loose association of 8 regional parties that were not affiliated with the Congress Party or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), voted for a new term in office for Kalam.

On June 6, 2007, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared that it would support the previous Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the election if he would run as a non-party candidate. In the run-up there were also lengthy talks between the party coalition of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the congress party, and the left-wing parties ( CPM , CPI , AIFB , RSP ) about a possible common candidate. The latter demand that this time a woman should be made the candidate and it was finally agreed on the 73-year-old governor of Rajasthan Pratibha Patil as a common candidate for the office. The decision was announced on June 14, 2007 by the chairwoman of the UPA Sonia Gandhi . The Bahujan Samaj Party under Mayawati also followed this election recommendation.

On June 22, 2007, Patil resigned from her post as governor to run for president. After Kalam had initially not commented on the possibility of a second term, he surprised the public on June 22, 2007 with his remark that he would be ready for a second term if it was certain that he would be elected as a consensus candidate. However, this was rejected by the Congress party and the left-wing parties that had committed themselves to Patil. On June 23, 2007, Kalam therefore ruled out a second term.

In response, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) declared on July 22, 2007, its support for Shekhawat's candidacy. However, the NDA party announced Shiv Sena on June 25, 2007 to vote in the election for the Maharashtra native Patil. All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka declared, even though they were in electoral alliances with the BJP in both countries, that they wanted to abstain from the vote. In view of the increasingly unfavorable election prospects of the NDA candidate Shekhawat, opposition leader LK Advani called on the parliamentarians to not follow party discipline but their own convictions ( “conscience vote” ), in the hope that this would result in some MPs from the opposite side aside Draw Shekhawats.

The United National Progressive Alliance decided to recommend to their MPs abstention on 15 July of 2007.

Election process and result

See also : Electoral College (India)

Majorities by state: Pratibha Devisingh Patil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat



On June 16, 2007 the election dates were announced. Candidates were nominated until June 30, 2007. On July 2, 2007, a decision was made on the validity of the nominations, with only Pratibha Patil and Bhairon Shekhawat being allowed to vote. The actual election took place on July 19, 2007 and the vote count took place on July 21, 2007.

The Electoral College was composed of the 776 elected members of both chambers of parliament (Lok Sabha 543, Rajya Sabha 233) and 4120 elected members of the 28 states and the two union territories of Delhi and Pondicherry . Together it comprised 4,896 members. A total of 4,472 MPs took part in the vote, which corresponds to a turnout of 91.3%.

candidate	MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha	Member of the State Parliaments	Weighted votes	in percent
Pratibha Devisingh Patil	442	2,489	638.116	65.82
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat	232	1,217	331.306	33.18
total	together 4,380		969.422	100.0

78 out of 4,472 MPs voted invalidly (1.7%).

The election showed that some NDA members had voted against their official party line and voted for Pratibha Patil ( “cross-voting” ). This mainly affected the states of Bihar , Jharkhand , Madhya Pradesh , Nagaland , Orissa , Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan . In Assam , 15 of the 24 parliamentarians of the Asom Gana Parishad voted against the party line (abstention) for Patil. Patil also received more votes from the delegates from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha than the government coalition and the Bahujan Samaj Party had mandates (442 instead of 426). From the state parliaments, 2,489 voted for Pratil and 1,217 for Shekhawat. Of the federal states, Shekhawat was only able to win a majority in Gujarat , Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh , Rajasthan, Orissa and Punjab . The result in Karnataka was very narrow in favor of Patil (83 against 82 MPs). Shekhawat also benefited from party dissidents in individual states, for example in Tamil Nadu , where he received votes from AIADMK , MDMK and DMK parliamentarians, and in Rajasthan, where some members of the INLD voted for him against the official party lines (abstention).

After the announcement of the election results, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared the result to be a “ vote against divisive forces” and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the call for an election of conscience had led to a vote against divisive forces other side decided ( "Conscience has gone on the other side" ).

On July 25, 2007, Pratibha Patil took office as President.

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). 
• Klaus Julian Voll: India Pratibha Patil is the new President of India , suedasien.info, July 27, 2007 (a detailed analysis of the candidate selection and the party strategies)
• Patil becomes India's next president , NDTV television coverage of the July 21, 2007 election

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 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. ^ At that time , the Third Front included AIADMK , Telugu Desam , Samajwadi Party , Indian National Lok Dal , MDMK , Asom Gana Parishad , Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and others
3. ^ Third Front wants second term for Abdul Kalam. oneindia.com, June 18, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
4. ^ Prez polls: Shekhawat can contest as independent. The Times of India, June 6, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Onkar Singh: Prez poll: Pratibha Patil is UPA-Left nominee. rediff.com, June 14, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
6. ^ Prashant Sood: Presidential Poll: Mayawati goes UPA way. The Tribune of India, June 12, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
7. ^ Pratibha Patil resigns as Rajasthan Governor. IBNlive.com, June 22, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
8. ^ Kalam not the right choice for Left. IBNlive.com, June 22, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
9. ^ Kalam rejects proposal to run for second term. Business Standard, June 23, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
10. ↑ NDA backs 'Independent' Shekhawat. IBNlive, June 22, 2007, accessed on May 10, 2015 (English). 
11. ^ Presidential poll: Sena to support Pratibha. rediff.com, June 25, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
12. ^ ^{A b} M. Rama Rao: Pratibha Patil declared elected as India's 13th President. Asian Tribune, July 22, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
13. ^ Advani appeals to MPs, MLAs for 'conscience vote'. The Times of India, July 6, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
14. ↑ Third Front to abstain from voting. The Hindu, July 15, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
15. ^ ^{A b} President Pratibha Patil. rediff.com, July 21, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
16. ↑ The numbers of 4,472 valid votes given in the sources differ from the total of those who voted (4,380), possibly because blank ballot papers were also cast.
17. ↑ ^{a b} Prathibha Patil elected president. The Hindu, July 22, 2007, accessed May 10, 2015 .