Election Commission to announce dates for Presidential polls today

Image courtesy: ANI

New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday will announce the schedule for the Presidential polls. The EC sent an invite for a press conference at 3 pm today to announce the dates for the election to the post of President.

The President of India is elected by the members of the electoral college comprising elected Members of Parliament and elected members of all the Assemblies. Nominated members are not eligible to vote. In 2017, the presidential polls were held on July 17 and the counting took place on July 20.

President Ram Nath Kovind`s term is coming to end on July 24. Kovind is only the second Dalit President of the country. The first Dalit President of India was K R Narayanan, who remained in the office from July 25, 1997 to July 25, 2002. 

The President of India is elected through the votes of all MPs (of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) and MLAs (of all states and UTs of India), who are jointly known as the “Electoral College”. 

While every MP has the same value of his or her vote (regardless of the size of his parliamentary constituency), the value of the vote of an MLA depends upon the relative population strength and a total number of assembly constituencies in that state.

(With Agency Inputs)