2022 Indian presidential election

The 2022 Indian presidential election will be the 17th presidential election to be held in India. Ram Nath Kovind is expected to be the incumbent president at the time of the election. Article 56(1) of the Constitution of India provides that the President of India shall remain in office for a period of five years. Consequent to the expiry of the term of President Kovind, an election to fill in the office is expected to be scheduled.

Background[]

Article 58 of the constitution sets the qualifications one must meet to be eligible to the office of the president. A president must be:

a citizen of India
of 35 years of age or above
qualified to become a member of the Lok Sabha

Ram Nath Kovind was elected President in the 2017 Indian presidential election, and is expected to remain in office till 25 July 2022. During his presidency, he made trips to 28 countries, each for a state visit. He has received the highest State honors from six countries, and has held the office during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. He is a potential candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but has not been nominated by the party.

Presidential election in India[]

Article 58 of the Indian Constitution provides that the President and Vice President of India must be citizen of India, and at least 35 years old. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the political parties, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Traditionally, the primary elections are indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The general election in July is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the president and vice president.

Selection process[]

The President of India is indirectly elected by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of parliament, the elected members of the Legislative assemblies of the 28 states and the elected members of the legislative assemblies of the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir. As of 2021, the electoral college comprises 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs. The system assigns varying numbers of votes to these electoral college members, such that the total weight of MPs and those of MLAs is roughly equal and that the voting power of states and territories are proportional to their population. Overall the members of the electoral college were eligible to cast 1,098,903 votes, yielding a threshold for a majority of 549,452 votes.

The nomination of a candidate for election to the office of the President must be subscribed by at least 50 electors as proposers and 50 electors as seconders. The election is held by means of a secret ballot under the single transferable vote system. The manner of election of President is provided by Article 55 of the Constitution.

The returning officer for the election was Anoop Mishra, the Secretary General of Lok Sabha.

Speculated candidates[]

As of April 2021, the following people have been subjects of speculation about their potential candidacy for Presidency.

Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India (11 August 2017-present);Minister of Information and Broadcasting (5 July 2016 – 17 July 2017);Minister of Urban Development (26 May 2014 – 17 July 2017) ; Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (26 May 2014 – 17 July 2017);Minister of Parliamentary Affairs( 26 May 2014 – 5 July 2016);Minister for Rural Development (30 September 2000 – 30 June 2002);Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (27 March 1998 –10 August 2017).^{[citation needed]}
Sharad Pawar, Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra (1978–1980, 1988–1991, 1993–1995); Minister of Agriculture (2004–2014) Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2014–present)^[1]
Karan Singh,^[2] Prince Regent (1949-1952) of Jammu and Kashmir, Sadr-e-Riyasat (President) of Jammu and Kashmir (1952–1965); Governor of Jammu and Kashmir (1965–1967); Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation (1967–1973); Minister of Health (1973–1977); Minister of Education and Culture (1979–1980); Ambassador to United States of America (1989–1990); Member of Rajya Sabha (2000–2018), former chancellor of Banaras Hindu University
Bhim Singh,^[3] author, assassination survivor, former professor of University of Cambridge, former Member of Lok Sabha (1988), former Member of National Integration Council(1991-2016), former member of J&K Legislative Assembly (1977-1987), senior executive member of Supreme Court Bar Association, executive chairman of state Legal Aid Committee, and founder president of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party.