2022 Presidential Election: Value of MPs' vote goes down, check details here

New Delhi: With the announcement of the election date for the next President of India on July 18 in which 4,809 electors comprising MPs and MLAs will vote to elect incumbent Ram Nath Kovind's successor, the absence of a legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir will have its impact as the value of the vote of a member of Parliament has gone down to 700 from 708 in the presidential poll. The value of an MP's vote in a presidential election is based on the number of elected members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and those of the legislative assemblies of states and UTs including Delhi and Puducherry. Nominated MPs and MLAs as well as members of legislative councils cannot vote to elect the president.

Before it was bifurcated into two union territories of Ladakh, and Jammu & Kashmir in August 2019, the erstwhile state of J&K had 83 assembly seats. According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the Union Territory of J&K will have a legislative assembly, while Ladakh will be governed directly by the Centre.

The Centre had announced that elections to the legislative assembly would be held after the completion of the delimitation of assembly constituencies. Last month, the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir notified its final order, wherein, it has recommended a 90-member House for the newly carved out Union Territory, but it may take some time to have an elected House in place in the UT.

It is not the first time that MLAs of a state assembly will be deprived of voting in the presidential elections. In 1974, the 182-member Gujarat assembly was dissolved in March following the Navnirman Andolan and could not be constituted before the presidential election in which Fakruddin Ali Ahmed was elected.

Jammu and Kashmir, however, will not go unrepresented in the presidential elections as members of Lok Sabha will be eligible to exercise their franchise to elect the First Citizen of the country. 

It may be noted that the value of the vote of a Member of Parliament has been fixed at 708 since the 1997 presidential election. The value of vote of an MP for the first presidential election in 1952 was 494, and later increased to 496 in the 1957 presidential election, followed by 493 (1962), 576 (1967 and 1969). The presidential elections were held in 1969 due to the death of President Zakir Hussain on May 3, 1969.

In the 1974 presidential election, the value of the vote of an MP was 723, and it has been fixed at 702 for the presidential elections from 1977 to 1992.

The value of the vote of each MLA varies in different states as the value of the vote of each MLA stands at 208 in Uttar Pradesh, followed by 176 in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, while it is 175 in Maharashtra. In Sikkim, the value of vote per MLA is seven, while it is nine in Nagaland and eight in Mizoram. 

President Ram Nath Kovind completes his term on July 24, and his successor has to be elected before that. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Thursday, responded to a question on the value of the vote of each member of Parliament due to the absence of a legislative assembly in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. He told the media that the value of the vote of each MP will be 700, adding "It was 708 (earlier). It has been changing. It was 702 (at one time)." 

(With PTI Inputs)