New Delhi: As the tenure of the current President of India Ram Nath Kovind is going to end on July 24, 2022, the next presidential election will be held soon. However, the election will not be lesser than a challenge to BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as it needs the help of other political parties to reach the majority mark for the poll.
Despite winning assembly elections in four out of five states that have gone to polls recently, NDA falls short of the number of votes needed to win the presidential election as the number of saffron party’s MLAs decreased both in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
In Uttar Pradesh, BJP and its ally Apna Dal had won 323 assembly seats, however, after the recently held elections, the NDA’s strength reduced to it 273. Similarly, in Uttarakhand, the strength of the BJP went down from 56 to 47.
How President is elected in India?
In India, the president is elected indirectly by the electoral college consisting of both MPs and MLAs.
The MP’s vote-value in the election is 708 whereas, MLA’s vote-value depends on both the population of the state and the number of MLAs of the state assembly.
As the vote-value of UP MLAs is the highest in the country, the drop in BJP’s strength in the state assembly makes the election difficult for the saffron party.
The total vote value of the electoral college for the presidential election is 1093347. At present, the NDA has 48.8 percent of the total electoral college’s total vote-value. However, to win the presidential election, the candidate needs at least 50 percent of the total vote-value.
Who can help BJP in winning presidential election?
Regional parties that have significant shares in the total vote-value of the electoral college are Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), and Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
AAP has 1 percent, TMC has 3.05 percent, YSRCP has 4 percent, TRS has 2.2 percent, and BJD has around 3 percent.
Out of them, AAP, TMC, and TRS are unlikely to extend support to BJP’s presidential candidate due to ideological differences with the saffron party.
However, BJP may get support from Jagan Mohan Reddy or Naveen Patnaik. Earlier too, YSRCP and BJP had supported the saffron during the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill and scrapping of Article 370.
It means NDA cannot win the presidential election on its own. It has to take help from either Jagan Mohan or Naveen Patnaik.
