Presidential election in India 2017

The election winner Ram Nath Kovind (2017)

The 2017 presidential election in India was the 15th presidential election in India since independence. The election took place on July 17, 2017 and the counting of votes took place on July 20, 2017, four days before the end of the term of office of the previous incumbent Pranab Mukherjee ( Congress Party ). The election was won by Ram Nath Kovind , the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party , with 65.6% of the vote. His rival candidate Meira Kumar from the Congress Party came in at 34.5%.

prehistory

Development since 2012

The last presidential election in 2012 was won by the Congress party's candidate Pranab Mukherjee . Since then, the majority in the Indian parliaments had shifted very clearly to the disadvantage of the Congress party. In the 2014 all- India parliamentary election , the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won more than half of all parliamentary seats in the Lok Sabha . In several subsequent elections to the parliaments of various states, the BJP was able to achieve remarkable successes, measured against previous results. In 2014, these included the states of Maharashtra , Haryana , Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand . The important election in the populous Bihar in 2015 was lost for the BJP. In 2016, the BJP won the Assam election ; in the states of West Bengal , Kerala and Tamil Nadu , however, she had no chance. The BJP achieved an important election victory in the elections in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in February and March 2017, in which it was able to win a three-quarters majority of the seats. The BJP was also successful in the small states of Uttarakhand and Manipur . In contrast, it suffered losses in the states of Punjab and Goa .

The major parties have not nominated any official candidates for the upcoming presidential election for a long time. In the previous presidential elections, too, the candidates were only nominated shortly before the election date. Various people have been brought up for discussion in the press including BJP politicians Lal Krishna Advani , Murli Manohar Joshi , Sushma Swaraj , Rajnath Singh , Arun Jaitley and others. A renewed term of office of the previous incumbent Mukherjee appeared unlikely due to the majority situation. The chances of a nomination fell for the two potential candidates Advani and Joshi after the Indian Supreme Court ordered the reopening of Ayodhya trials against them in April 2017 .

Majority relationships in the electoral college

Shortly before the election, the BJP MPs in the electoral college (see below) held a relative voting weight of 40.03%. The MPs of the BJP-led party alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to 8.61%. The parties in strict opposition to the BJP (Congress Party, Communists, etc.) came together to 35.47%. The behavior of the six larger regional parties, which operate more or less equidistant from the Congress and the BJP, was judged to be decisive. These six parties - AIADMK in Tamil Nadu , BJD in Odisha , TRS in Telangana , YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh , AAP in Delhi and Punjab , and INLD in Haryana - together had a voting weight of 13.06%.

Candidate nominations

Meira Kumar

Candidates could be nominated from June 14th to 28th, 2017. On June 19, 2017, the National Democratic Alliance announced that it would nominate the incumbent Governor of Bihar , Ram Nath Kovind , as a joint candidate. Kovind's nomination has been viewed by political commentators as a clever political move by the BJP leadership. In the past few decades, Kovind had made a name for himself as a lawyer at the highest courts in India, representing the interests of the underprivileged groups of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes . He himself comes from a Dalit family. These circumstances made it difficult for some of the above-mentioned parties, who consider themselves to represent the interests of these population groups ( Bahujan Samaj Party , Samajwadi Party, etc.), to speak out against him too clearly. In quick succession, various parties declared their support for Kovind, so the BJD and TRS on June 19, 2017, the YSRCP on June 20, 2017 and the JD (U) and AIADMK on June 21, 2017. On June 28, 2017 also declared the predominantly Muslim JKPDP , the ruling party in Jammu and Kashmir, that they want to support Kovind. After that, the majority of votes for Kovind seemed practically secured.

On June 22, 2017, representatives from 17 opposition parties met in Delhi to discuss a common candidate. This was followed by a press conference at which it was announced that Congress Party politician Meira Kumar , who had held the role of speaker in the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014 , would be the joint presidential candidate. In addition to the Congress Party and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by it, the following parties spoke out in favor of Kumar's support : Trinamool Congress , Communist Party (Marxist) , Rashtriya Janata Dal , Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party .

By the end of the nomination phase on June 28, 2017, 108 nominations had been submitted for a total of 95 candidates. Some candidates have been nominated multiple times, including the two main candidates Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar, who each received 4 nominations (the maximum number allowed). This was also done as a safeguard in order not to be disqualified from voting due to a possible formal error in the nomination.

On June 29, 2017, a decision was made on the validity of the nominations. Only the two main candidates, Kovind and Kumar, had met the formal requirements. All other applicants were disqualified.

Election mode and election procedure

→ Main article : Electoral College (India)

Majorities by state and union territories: Ram Nath Kovind Meira Kumar



The Indian President is elected indirectly by an electoral college ( Electoral College ). This consists of a maximum of 4896 members of all Indian parliaments (ie the parliaments of the federal states and some Union territories as well as the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha ). The votes of the individual MPs in the Electoral College , however, have very different voting weights, depending on how many voters they represent.

Result

The counting of votes on June 20, 2017 resulted in the following result: Of the 771 MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha eligible to vote, 768 (99.61%) cast their votes. Of the 4109 MPs in the state and Union Territory Parliaments, 4083 (99.37%) voted. Kovind received 702,044 votes (65.6%) and Meira Kumar 367,314 (34.35%). The votes of 77 voters (20,942 votes) were invalid.

Preliminary results according to parliaments

Legislative / State, UT	Meira Kumar		Ram Nath Kovind
	number	be right	number	be right
Parliament ( Rajya Sabha , Lok Sabha )	225	159,300	522	369,576
Andhra Pradesh	0	0	171	27,189
Arunachal Pradesh	3	24	56	448
Assam	35	4,050	91	10,556
Bihar	109	18,357	130	22,490
Chhattisgarh	35	4,516	52	6,708
Goa	11	220	25th	500
Gujarat	49	7,203	132	19,404
Haryana	16	1,792	73	8,176
Himachal Pradesh	37	1,887	30th	1,530
Jammu and Kashmir	30th	2,160	56	4.032
Jharkhand	26th	4,576	51	8,976
Karnataka	163	21,353	56	7,336
Kerala	138	20,976	1	152
Madhya Pradesh	57	7,467	171	22,401
Maharashtra	77	13,475	208	36,400
Meghalaya	41	342	37	666
Manipur	19th	697	8th	134
Mizoram	31	248	6th	48
Nagaland	1	9	56	504
Odisha	17th	2,533	127	18,923
Punjab	95	11,020	18th	2,088
Rajasthan	34	4,386	166	21,414
Sikkim	1	7th	28	190
Tamil Nadu	98	17,248	134	23,584
Telangana	20th	2,640	97	12,804
Tripura	53	1,378	7th	182
Uttarakhand	11	704	59	3,776
Uttar Pradesh	65	13,520	335	69,580
West Bengal	273	41,223	11	1,661
Delhi	55	3,190	6th	348
Pondicherry	19th	304	10	160
total	1,844	367.314	2,930	702.044

Web links

• Election to the Office of the President of India 2017 (pdf, detailed explanation of the electoral process, with election results of all presidential elections up to 2012, English), Indian Electoral Commission
• Manual for PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS June 2017 , (pdf, legal basis for elections, English), Indian Election Commission
• LIST OF MEMBERS OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2017 (pdf, names of all members of the electoral college, English), Indian Electoral Commission

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} SCHEDULE FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2017. (PDF) Retrieved on June 14, 2017 (English). 
2. ↑ Presidential polls 2017: Voting ends, decision on Thursday. The Indian Express, July 17, 2017, accessed July 18, 2017 . 
3. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on January 7, 2017 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence). 
4. ↑ for the context see e.g. B. Ronald Meinardus (January 2017): Major elections after the cash abolition become a test for Modi
5. ↑ Election Results. The Times of India , accessed March 12, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Preeti Panwar: BJP to project Dr Murli Manohar Joshi as next president of India: Reports. oneindia.com, June 14, 2016, accessed January 7, 2017 . 
7. ↑ Murli Manohar Joshi to be next President of India? zeenews.india.com, June 14, 2016, accessed January 7, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Will Sushma Swaraj be the next President of India? indiatvnews.com, December 21, 2016, accessed January 7, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Rajeev Kumar: Uttar Pradesh election 2017: Here's why Rajnath Singh can be BJP's Chief Minister candidate. The Financial express, January 4, 2017, accessed January 7, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Arun Jaitley to be next President of India? india.com, June 23, 2016, accessed January 7, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Sudhi Ranjan Sen: Ayodhya Trial Decision Roils The BJP, Aspirations Of The Old Guard. Huffington Post, April 19, 2017, accessed May 8, 2017 . 
12. ↑ Ravish Tiwari: Presidential Elections 2017: BJP well placed, needs just one opposition party's support. The Economic Times, April 24, 2017, accessed May 20, 2017 . 
13. ↑ The Hindu Net Desk: Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind is NDA nominee for President. The Hindu, June 19, 2017, accessed June 20, 2017 . 
14. ↑ BJD supports NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in Presidential polls. The Indian Express, June 19, 2017, accessed June 21, 2017 . 
15. ↑ TRS extends support to NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. June 19, 2017, accessed June 21, 2017 . 
16. ↑ YSRCP to support NDA's Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. ysrcongress.com, June 20, 2017, accessed June 21, 2017 . 
17. ^ Presidential election: Nitish Kumar's JD (U) will support BJP nominee Ram Nath Kovind. scroll.in, accessed on June 21, 2017 (English). 
18. ↑ B Sivakumar: Presidential polls: Ruling AIADMK faction to support Ram Nath Kovind. June 21, 2017, accessed June 21, 2017 . 
19. ↑ Presidential Election 2017: PDP to support NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind. firstpost.com, June 28, 2017, accessed June 29, 2017 . 
20. ↑ From SP to CPM: Parties that supported Meira Kumar as presidential candidate. The Indian Express, June 23, 2017, accessed June 23, 2017 . 
21. ↑ Nikhil Agarwal: Presidential election 2017 list: Lalu Yadav, Saira Bano also in race. indiatoday.in, June 29, 2017, accessed on June 29, 2017 . 
22. ↑ Kovind, Meira in presidential contest after last day of nomination withdrawal. india.com, July 1, 2017, accessed July 2, 2017 . 
23. ↑ President elections 2017 LIVE: Ram Nath Kovind wins race to Rashtrapati Bhavan with 66 percent votes. indiatoday.in, July 20, 2017, accessed on July 20, 2017 . 
24. ↑ Chanchal: Presidential Election 2017 State-wise Results: Ram Nath Kovind Wins From 21 States. July 20, 2017, accessed July 27, 2017 .