: Former Jharkhand Governor and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate was elected the 15th President.){kind=link}
Ms. Droupadi Murmu, former Jharkhand Governor and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate was elected the 15th President of India. She is the first tribal woman to be elected to the position and the youngest as well.
Important Points:
- She was declared elected on 21 July 2022 after four rounds of counting.
- Although after the third round of counting she had crossed the halfway mark itself, posting an unassailable lead over her rival and the Opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha, who conceded the election thereafter.
- After four rounds of polling, Ms. Murmu received 2,824 votes of 6,76,803 value.
- While Mr. Sinha received 1,877 votes or 3,80,177 value.
- She received 64.03% of total valid votes polled.
- There had been a lot of cross-voting in Ms. Murmu’s favour from the Opposition ranks.
- After the third round of counting Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to greet Ms. Murmu at her residence in New Delhi.
- Mr. Modi tweeted that it created history when 1.3 billion Indians are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and an eastern Indian tribal daughter has been selected as our president.
More details about Ms. Murmu
- Ms. Murmu, who hails from the Santhal tribe, had been a former Governor of Jharkhand.
- She was born in the district of Mayurbhanj, Odisha.
- After completing graduation she taught in Odisha before entering electoral politics at the local body level.
- From 2000 to 2004 she served as minister of the Biju Janata Dal-BJP coalition government.
- She remained an MLA till 2009, representing Rairangpur in Odisha.
- She holds the record of being the only Governor of Jharkhand till date to complete a full tenure.
- She (Droupadi Murmu) was known to intervene in stopping amendments to the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act that was being brought in by the BJP government of Raghubar Das, which involved changing land use in tribal areas.
How to elect the President of India?
- The President is elected by an electoral college consisting of MPs of both Houses of Parliament and MLAs of the states and union territories (Delhi and Pondicherry).
- Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of state Legislative Councils, are not part of the electoral college.
- As per Census 1971, the votes are weighted, their value determined by the population of each state
- The value of each MLA’s vote varies from a high of 208 in Uttar Pradesh to a low of 7 in Sikkim.
- This means that UP’s 403 MLAs contribute 208 × 403 = 83,824 votes to the electoral pool.
- While Sikkim’s 32 MLAs contribute 32 × 7 = 224 votes.
- The weighted votes from all the Assemblies add up to 5.43 lakh..
- The process demands that 543 MPs in Lok Sabha, 233 MPs totalling 776 MPs should contribute the same total of votes as the MLAs.
- Thus, the value of each MP’s vote is 5.43 lakh divided by 776, rounded off to 700.
- The combined electoral pool from the Assemblies and Parliament adds up to 10.86 lakh.
Duty and responsibility of President of India:
- The primary duty of the president is to preserve, protect and defend the constitution and the law of India.
- He/She is the common head of all independent constitutional entities.
- All supervisory powers, Actions over the executive and legislative entities of India shall be used in accordance to uphold the constitution.
- There are no limits on the actions of the president to contest in the court of law.