Eligible MPs and MLAs across India will be vote in presidential elections on Monday to elect Ram Nath Kovind’s successor to the highest constitutional post of the country. The votes will be counted on July 21 and a new President will be in the Rashtrapati Bhavan by July 25.
The NDA has fielded former Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu, while the Opposition has backed former Union minister Yashwant Sinha. The numbers favour the BJP-led NDA which is also counting on the support of parties like AIADMK and YSRCP.
The value of the vote of a Member of Parliament has gone down to 700 from 708 this time due to the absence of a Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. The value of the vote of an MP in a presidential election is based on the number of elected members in Legislative Assemblies of states and Union Territories, including Delhi, Puducherry and J&K.
As voting gets underway to elect the 15th President of India, News18 takes a look at the widest and closest vote margins in past presidential elections:
WIDEST VICTORY MARGINS
1957: Rajendra Prasad, India’s first president, was in the fray for a second term. Up against him were Chowdhry Hari Ram and Nagendra Narayan Das. The sitting President polled 4,59,698 votes, while Das and Ram failed to cross even 5,000 combined.
1962: Dr S Radhakrishnan, Chowdhry Hari Ram and Yamuna Prasad Trisulia were in contention to replace Rajendra Prasad. Dr Radhakrishnan received 5,53,067 votes, while the other two candidates managed only 10,000 votes between them.
1977: This technically can’t be counted an election but was certainly the most unanimous. In presidential elections following the sudden death of incumbent Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in February 1977, a total of 37 candidates filed their nominations. On scrutiny, the Returning Officer rejected 36 of those, resulting in Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy being elected unopposed.
1997: KR Narayanan was up against TN Seshan to be the 11th President of India and got 9,56,290 votes against the 50,631 received by Seshan.
2002: India’s missile man Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was the absolute favourite heading into the elections. He polled 9,22,884 votes against 1,07,366 received by Lakshmi Sahgal.
CLOSE CALLS
1967: Of the 17 candidates in the fray, nine polled zero votes. Dr Zakir Hussain emerged victorious with 4,71,244 votes, while his nearest rival Kota Subbarao got 3,63,971.
1969: The elections were necessitated by the death of incumbent Dr Zakir Hussain in May 1969, following which Vice-President VV Giri became Acting President. He the resigned from both positions to contest the presidential elections.
The hectic political developments before the elections led to a historic split in the Congress as Indira Gandhi was reluctant to back Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy who was the choice of the Syndicate faction. The election came down to Giri, backed by Gandhi, versus Reddy. Giri ultimately won the election with 4,20,277 votes, while Reddy received 4,05,427.
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