The Indian Presidential Elections From 17 July, 2017

Nasim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner of the Indian Election Commission, on Wednesday, announced the Presidential Elections to be held on 17th July 2017.

The NDA followed by the opposition camps are yet to file their nominations. Analyzing the situation in the Electoral College, one can easily say that the candidatures will favor BJP no matter what. The BJP has decided to reach out to the regional parties and boost its performance by collaborating with TRS, YSR Congress, BJD and 2 factions of AIADMK to counter the Opposition’s claim of an anti-NDA consolidation. BJP claimed to have a massive 54% support of the entire electoral of MPs and state legislators.

From BJP, names like Sumitra Mahajan (Lok Sabha speaker) and Thawarchand Gehlot (Social Justice and Empowerment minister) have been into consideration. The party is said to be looking forward to establishing a caste balance between the new President and Vice-President.

Switching to the opposition’s course of action now, it seems Congress, Trinamool, Left, RJD, DMK and NCP have decided to put up a sub – committee chaired by NCP chief Sharad Pawar to figure out the best suited nominee from their camp. They are allegedly using the elections as a chance to oppose BJP’s “majoritarian” policies.

Names of certain prominence have surfaced from the Opposition’s side like Gopal Krishna Gandhi (former West Bengal Governor), Sharad Yadav (JD(U) Leader) and Meira Kumar (Lok Sabha speaker). However, NCP chief, Sharad Pawar has dismissed the formation of any such committee.

Schedule for the Presidential Elections:

The election procedure to be followed for the said elections will be notified on 14th June’17.

The nominations would close on 28th June’17

The EC would scrutinize the nominations on 29th June’17.

And the counting of votes followed by the declaration of results would be done on 20th July’17.

Procedure for the Elections:

Voting is to be done using the secret ballot.

The selected candidates, i.e. the ones eligible to contest for the posts of President and Vice-President will have to have the support of 50 proposers and 50 seconders.

15,000 INR is the security amount mandated for each nomination by the EC for this election.

Lastly, the political parties won’t be allowed to issue any kind of whip to MPs and MLAs to vote for their candidate.