2012 India presidential election

Pranab Mukherjee (2010)

The 2012 presidential election in India was the 14th election of India's president since independence and took place on July 19, 2012. Was elected Pranab Mukherjee , the candidate of the Congress Party .

prehistory

In the previous election in 2007, Pratibha Patil (Congress Party) was elected president. During her five-year term in office she had ruled out a renewed candidacy for a second term, and there were no voices in the political spectrum to call on her to do so. Towards the end of her term of office, which ended on July 24, 2012, discussions about her successor relaxed.

On June 13, 2012, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) declared that the party alliance led by the Congress Party wanted to put up the 76-year-old incumbent Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (Congress Party) as a joint candidate. However, the UPA's largest party after the Congress party, the All India Trinamool Congress under its party leader Mamata Banerjee, did not agree. Instead, Banerjee proposed a candidacy for incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh . Shortly thereafter, in a joint statement with the party leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Mulayam Singh Yadav , she brought up other candidate names , including that of the former President APJ Abdul Kalam . In the public and especially in the social networks , Abdul Kalam had repeatedly been mentioned as a possible candidate. The non-party Kalam was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. It enjoyed greater popularity in opinion polls, largely due to its past role in the development and testing of Indian nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rejected Mukherjee as a candidate for the Congress Party and offered the prospect of supporting Kalam, even if other parties, namely the Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were also involved. On June 16, 2012, Yadav (SP) declared his party's support for Mukjherjee's candidacy. In view of the dwindling support for his possible candidacy, Kalam announced on June 18, 2012 that he would not be available for election. After Kalam's withdrawal, the opposition coalition of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, decided on the former speaker of Lok Sabha , Purno Agitok Sangma from Meghalaya, as a joint candidate. But cracks also made themselves felt in the NDA camp. On July 3, 2012, the party leader of Janata Dal (United) (an NDA party) and Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar declared his support for Mukherjee's candidacy. Even Shiv Sena , another NDA party supported the candidacy Mukherjee, although obviously only party tactical reasons.

On July 17, 2012, Mamata Banerjee also declared that she wanted to vote for Mukherjee.

PA Sangma was thus supported by the BJP with the National Democratic Alliance , with the exception of Shiv Sena and Janata Dal (United). In addition there were the Biju Janata Dal and AIADMK .

Pranab Mukherjee was supported by the United Progressive Alliance , Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (United), the Samajwadi Party and part of the left-wing parties ( CPM , CPI , AIFB , RSP ).

Election mode and election procedure

→ Main article : Electoral College (India)

In the Electoral College , 748 MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and 4120 MPs from the parliaments of the federal states were eligible to vote (possible vacancies not taken into account). During the vote, which took place on July 19, 2012, there were some cases of cross voting , that is, MPs voted differently from their party line. In the BJP-ruled state of Karnataka, Mukherjee won significantly more votes than the mandates of the parties supporting him. In Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi abstained .

Results

Overall result

3,095 MPs with 713,763 votes (68.12%) voted for Mukherjee, and 1,483 with 315,987 (30.15%) for PG Sangma. 81 MPs with 18,221 votes voted invalidly. The turnout was close to 95%.

candidate	MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha	Member of the State Parliaments	weighted votes	in percent
Pranab Mukherjee	527	2,568	713.763	68.12
Purno Agitok Sangma	206	1,277	315.987	30.15
Invalid	together 81		18,221	1.73
total	together 4,659		1,047,971	100.0

Results according to individual parliaments

Majorities by state: Pranab Mukherjee Purno Agitok Sangma



The following table shows the percentage results by individual state and union territories.

Parliamentarians from:	Votes per MP	for Mukherjee	for Sangma
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha	733	72%	28%
Andhra Pradesh	185	98%	2%
Arunachal Pradesh	56	96%	4%
Assam	113	89%	11%
Bihar	236	62%	38%
Chhattisgarh	89	44%	56%
Goa	40	22%	78%
Gujarat	182	32%	68%
Haryana	82	65%	35%
Himachal Pradesh	67	24%	66%
Jammu and Kashmir	83	82%	18%
Karnataka	220	53%	47%
Kerala	124	100%	0%
Rajasthan	198	57%	43%
Odisha	141	18%	82%
Uttar Pradesh	398	88%	12%
West Bengal	278	99%	1 %
Madhya Pradesh	223	33%	67%
Maharashtra	272	83%	17%
Manipur	59	98%	2%
Meghalaya	57	60%	40%
Mizoram	39	82%	18%
Delhi	68	66%	34%
Tamil Nadu	193	23%	77%
Uttarakhand	69	57%	43%
Sikkim	29	97%	3%
Tripura	57	98%	2%
Jharkhand	80	75%	25%
Punjab	114	39%	61%
Nagaland	58	100%	0%
Pondicherry	28	82%	18%
Result	-	69.31%	30.69%

After the election

On July 25, 2012, Pranab Mukherjee was sworn in as the 13th President in the history of independent India. A legal complaint by PA Sangma based on alleged formal errors in the election was dismissed on December 5, 2012 by a narrow majority by the Supreme Court of India .

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. ↑ UPA names Mukherjee for president in econ shakeup. Reuters, June 15, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
2. ^ Prez poll: Mulayam, Mamata reject Pranab, suggest Manmohan. dnaindia.com, June 13, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Netizens campaign for second term to Kalam. Deccan Herald, April 26, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
4. ^ Kalam for President clicks on social networks. The Times of India, May 8, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
5. ↑ President poll: BJP rejects Pranab Mukherjee, Hamid Ansari, may back Kalam. ibnlive.in.com, April 30, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Mulayam Singh Yadav takes U-turn, extends support to Pranab Mukherjee. The Times of India, June 16, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
7. ↑ S. Karthick: APJ Abdul Kalam not to contest presidential poll 2012. The Times of India, June 18, 2012, accessed on April 4, 2015 (English). 
8. ↑ Presidential poll: BJP draws a blank with Kalam, looks to Sangma. NDTV, June 18, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Nitish explains support for Pranab candidature. The Hindu, July 3, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Why Shiv Sena is really supporting Pranab for president. NDTV, June 19, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
11. ↑ President poll: Mamata Banerjee's TMC to support Pranab Mukherjee. ibnlive.in.com, July 17, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
12. ^ President Election 2012: Cross-voting in favor of Pranab in Karnataka. July 22, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
13. ↑ TDP to abstain from voting in Presidential election. rediff.com, July 19, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
14. ^ TRS not to vote in Presidential election. rediff.com, July 18, 2012, accessed April 4, 2015 . 
15. ^ Presidential election: Break-up of votes polled. Greater Andhra, July 12, 2012, accessed April 5, 2015 . 
16. ^ J. Balaji: Pranab the President. The Hindu, July 23, 2012, accessed April 5, 2015 . 
17. ^ Vishwa Mohan: Pranab Mukherjee elected India's 13th President. The Times of India, July 22, 2012, accessed April 5, 2015 . 
18. ^ Presidential election: Break-up of votes polled. The Times of India, July 22, 2012, accessed April 6, 2016 . 
19. ↑ SC splits, rules by 3 to 2 majority PA Sangma plea against President Pranab Mukherjee not maintainable. The Indian Express, December 5, 2012, accessed April 5, 2015 .