The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the election of the President of India. The last date for nominations is June 30, elections will be held on July 19, and counting will take place on July 22. The BJD and AIADMK have proposed the name of Mr. P.A. Sangma. The Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress have suggested three names. Other parties or alliances have not announced any contenders. Our calculations show that no single party or alliance has the numbers to unilaterally elect candidates of its choice. A candidate will need 5,48,507 votes to be elected as the President. If the UPA were to vote as a consolidated block, its vote tally would reach 4,49,847 (41% of the total votes). Among the Congress allies, Trinamool holds the largest number of votes (47,898). If Trinamool decides to support some other candidate, the UPA tally will fall to 4,01,949 votes (37% of the total). The votes held by the major alliances are given in the table below:
| Coalition | Value of votes | Percentage of total votes |
| UPA |
4,49,847 |
41.0% |
| NDA |
3,03,912 |
27.7% |
| Left |
52,282 |
4.8% |
| Bahujan Samaj Party |
43,723 |
4.0% |
| Samajwadi Party |
68,943 |
6.3% |
| Biju Janata Dal |
30,215 |
2.8% |
| AIADMK |
36,216 |
3.3% |
| Others |
1,11,874 |
10.2% |
| Total |
10,97,012 |
|
| Minimum required to be elected |
5,48,507 |
|
A detailed break-up of votes held by each party is given in the table below:
| Party | Value of votes | Percentage of total votes |
| Indian National Congress |
3,31,855 |
30.30% |
| Bharatiya Janata Party |
2,32,454 |
21.20% |
| Samajwadi Party |
68,943 |
6.30% |
| All India Trinamool Congress |
47,898 |
4.40% |
| Bahujan Samaj Party |
43,723 |
4.00% |
| Janata Dal (United) |
41,574 |
3.80% |
| All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) |
36,216 |
3.30% |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
35,734 |
3.30% |
| Biju Janata Dal |
30,215 |
2.80% |
| Nationalist Congress Party |
24,058 |
2.20% |
| Independent |
23,830 |
2.20% |
| Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) |
21,780 |
2.00% |
| Telugu Desam Party |
21,256 |
1.90% |
| Shiv Sena |
18,320 |
1.70% |
| Shiromani Akali Dal |
11,564 |
1.10% |
| Communist Party of India |
9,758 |
0.90% |
| Rashtriya Janata Dal |
8,816 |
0.80% |
| Others |
7,420 |
0.70% |
| Janata Dal (Secular) |
6,138 |
0.60% |
| Jammu and Kashmir National Conference |
5,556 |
0.50% |
| Rashtriya Lok Dal |
5,412 |
0.50% |
| Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhaga (DMDK) |
5,104 |
0.50% |
| Jharkhand Mukti Morcha |
4,584 |
0.40% |
| Muslim League Kerala State Committee |
4,456 |
0.40% |
| Indian National Lok Dal |
4,068 |
0.40% |
| All India Forward Bloc |
3,961 |
0.40% |
| Jharkhand Vikas Morcha |
3,352 |
0.30% |
| Asom Gana Parishad |
3,284 |
0.30% |
| Telangana Rashtra Samiti |
3,044 |
0.30% |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party |
2,829 |
0.30% |
| Bodoland People's Front |
2,808 |
0.30% |
| All India United Democratic Front |
2,796 |
0.30% |
| Praja Rajyam Party |
2,664 |
0.20% |
| Maharashtra Navnirman Sena |
2,275 |
0.20% |
| Kerala Congress (M) |
2,076 |
0.20% |
| All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen |
1,744 |
0.20% |
| Nagaland People's Front |
1,722 |
0.20% |
| Sikkim Democratic Front |
1,640 |
0.10% |
| Peoples Democratic Party |
1,512 |
0.10% |
| Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi |
1,058 |
0.10% |
| Lok Janasakti Party |
957 |
0.10% |
| All Jharkhand Students Union |
880 |
0.10% |
| Haryana Janhit Congress |
820 |
0.10% |
| Mizo National Front |
732 |
0.10% |
| Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam |
708 |
0.10% |
| Swabhimani Paksha |
708 |
0.10% |
| Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi |
708 |
0.10% |
| YSR Congress Party |
708 |
0.10% |
| Peasants and Workers Party |
700 |
0.10% |
| Pattali Makkal Katchi |
528 |
0.00% |
| Manithaneya Makkal Katch |
352 |
0.00% |
| Puthiya Tamilaga |
352 |
0.00% |
| All India NR Congress |
240 |
0.00% |
| J&K National Panthers Party |
216 |
0.00% |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) |
176 |
0.00% |
| United Democratic Party |
153 |
0.00% |
| Lok Satta Party |
148 |
0.00% |
| Loktantrik Samajwadi Party |
129 |
0.00% |
| J&K Democratic Party Nationalist |
72 |
0.00% |
| People's Democratic Front |
72 |
0.00% |
| Uttarakhand Kranti Dal |
64 |
0.00% |
| Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party |
60 |
0.00% |
| People's Party of Arunachal |
32 |
0.00% |
| Total |
10,97,012 |
|
Notes: The electoral college for the Presidential election consists of the elected members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and all Legislative Assemblies. The winning candidate must secure at least 50% of the total value of votes polled. Each MP/ MLA’s vote has a pre-determined value based on the population they represent. For instance, an MP’s vote has a value of 708, an MLA from UP has a vote value of 208 and an MLA from Sikkim has a vote value of 7 (Note that all MPs, irrespective of the constituency or State they represent, have equal vote value). Parties in various coalitions: UPA: Congress, Trinamool, DMK, NCP,Rashtriya Lok Dal, J&K National Conference, Muslim League Kerala State Committee, Kerala Congress (M), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Sikkim Democratic Front, Praja Rajyam Party, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi NDA: BJP, JD(U), Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal, Janata Party Left: CPI(M), CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party, All India Forward Bloc
We need your ideas and inputs. Ideas on how we can inform many more people who are interested in policy about what they can access on the PRS website. The mission of PRS is to strengthen the legislative process by making it better informed, more transparent and participatory. The statement has three important components: (a) Better informed: This implies that legislators and citizens need to be better informed about the implications of legislation. For us in PRS, this implies producing easy-to-understand non-partisan analysis that can be made available to MPs and citizens. This also includes our continual efforts to personally brief MPs and political parties on the details and implications of each Bill. (b) Transparent: We mean that all proceedings of Parliament and the work of MPs in Parliament should be easily accessible to citizens. In an operational sense, this includes the effort we put into creating the Bill Track section on our website where every Bill that is pending in Parliament can be accessed, and the current status of the Bill can be tracked. It also includes the MP Track section in which we have up-to-date information about the engagement levels of MPs in Parliament. We also have a twitter page www.twitter.com/prslegislative and a Facebook presence. (c) Participatory: Which simply means that once citizens know the information, and would like to articulate a point of view, they should reach out to policy makers and get their point of view across to them. To promote this, we have had a number of workshops with NGOs and have produced a primer on "Engaging with Policy Makers". These are just some examples of what we are doing in each of these three areas. Our website has much more information. But we are increasingly of the view that we need to reach out many more people who are interested in policy -- even if it is sector specific. We would be grateful for any ideas that you might have, which you can post as responses to this post. If you also have specific ideas on what you like on our website and what can be better, do let us know. Thanks, in advance.
