How is the President elected?
So, it is the time to bid fare-the-well to the 13th presiding president, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee as his term expires this July 2017 and the election process for the new president is underway. In this article we will tell you how is the president elected.
The process for the election of the president’s post is much more rigorous than that for Prime Minister. The head of the state and the commander in chief is indirectly elected by the people through the members elected in both the houses of the parliament and hence the person elected serves the nation for 5 years. The oath of the President is taken in the presence of the Chief Justice of India and in his/her absence, by the most senior judge of the Supreme Court of India. To participate in this fray, the candidate must be a citizen of India and must be of 35 years of age and above and should be qualified to become a member of the Lok Sabha.
A person shall not be eligible for election as President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments.
The next PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS are round the corner and are scheduled in July 2017; with all this going, Congress attempts to take all the opposition political parties together in what is rumoured as the battle of ideologies. The major opposition party, Congress is progressing with a diplomatic approach saying that it will have a broad outlook towards this election if BJP tries to make a consensus. The congress is also open to have a second tenure for the existing president. As asked by Pranab Mukherjee, he is of the view that he will give a thought to extension of his tenure if the ruling party asks him to do so. But the in power party BJP and its parent sangh RSS is not so keen to give Pranab Mukherjee this chance. After the sweep through victory of BJP in the UP state assembly, BJP is looking towards this chance as to mark footprints of its ideology at Raisin Hall, having a much closer chance to stand off its candidate. The ideology game going on in the politics is all that would centre this years’ Presidential Elections. This year 6 key candidates are taking part in the presidential race. The names are L.K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Amitabh Bachchan, Ram Naik, Sumitra Mahajan and Draupadi Murmu. Two of the above being the senior BJP leaders, it was a difficult choice for the BJP whom to choose for the fray. Later some days, Amit Shah announced Ram Nath Kovind as the BJP’s Presidential Candidate. In this fight, the opposition Indian National Congress is giving a chance to former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar. Experts are of the view that Ram Nath Kovind has more chances over Meira Kumar. But let us wait till 20th July for the mystery to unfold.
