Previous Year Question
With reference to the election of the President of India, consider the following statements.
The value of the vote of each MLA varies from State to State.
The value of the vote of MPs of the Lok Sabha is more than the value of the vote of MPs of the Rajya Sabha.
Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?
Only 1
Only 2
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Correct Answer: A
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is correct. Article 55 seeks to maintain, as far as practicable, uniformity in the scale of representation of different States and parity between the States as a whole and the Union.
The value of the vote of each elected MLA of a State is determined as follows:
After counting the multiples of one thousand, one is added if the remainder is 500 or more. Since the population and the number of elected MLAs differ among States, the value of an MLA’s vote varies from State to State.
Under the constitutional arrangement, the population of the 1971 Census is used until the relevant figures of the first Census taken after 2026 are published.
Statement 2 is incorrect. The value of the vote of each elected Member of Parliament is calculated as follows:
No distinction is made between elected members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Therefore, every elected Lok Sabha MP and every elected Rajya Sabha MP has an equal vote value. In the 2017 Presidential election, the value of the vote of each elected MP was 708.
Under Article 54, the electoral college for the President consists of:
the elected members of both Houses of Parliament;
the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States; and
the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry.
Nominated members of Parliament and State Assemblies, as well as members of State Legislative Councils, are excluded. Under Article 55(3), the election is conducted through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and voting is by secret ballot.