Indian presidential election, 2007

Indian presidential election, 2007
India
19 July 2007

 
Nominee Pratibha Devisingh Patil Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
Party INC Independent
Home state Maharashtra Rajasthan
Electoral vote 638,116 331,306

President before election

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Independent

Elected President

Pratibha Patil
INC

The Election Commission of India held indirect 13th presidential elections of India on 19 July 2007.[1] Pratibha Patil with 638,116 votes won over her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat who got 331,306 votes. This result meant that Pratibha Patil became the first female President of India.

Candidates

Official candidates

On 14 June, Pratibha Patil, the governor of the state of Rajasthan, was declared by UPA as its candidate for the election. The Left and other allies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) such as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) announced their support on Patil's candidature. Shiv Sena, an ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) also supported Patil's candidature. The move came as a surprise as Patil's name was not mentioned among the probables by UPA so far.

Supported unofficially by the NDA, the then Vice President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat filed his nomination as an independent candidate on 25 June 2007.

Potential candidates

Amidst much speculation by various party leaders and media, a lot of names were tossed around as being probable or desired persons for holding the post.

Initially Shivraj Patil and Pranab Mukherjee (both sitting cabinet ministers) emerged as the frontrunners[2] for the candidature. Other names which did the rounds in the UPA camp include Sushil Kumar Shinde and Karan Singh. Pranab Mukherjee was stated to be too critical at his current responsibility to stand for the Presidential elections and the Left parties opposed the candidature of Shivaraj Patil, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Karan Singh.[3]

On the other hand, the NDA stated that it would support Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, in case he decides to contest as an independent candidate.[4]

Other probables such as N.R. Narayana Murthy who received significant media hype did not appear to have gathered any support from any of the sides. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a former prime minister who would have been NDA's probable candidate[5] denied his desire to become the next president.[6]

On 18 June, a set of parties with allegiance neither to UPA or NDA—All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Samajwadi Party (SP)—formed an alliance called the United National Progressive Alliance and announced their support for a second term for the incumbent, Abdul Kalam.[7] On 20 June a delegation of United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) met Dr. Kalam with a request to contest the presidential elections, to which he replied that he is willing to contest only if there is a certainty of winning and that he is willing to wait for a few days for this certainty.[8] However, he soon announced he would not run.

On 14 July 2007, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (Leader of Opposition) J. Jayalalitha announced that the UNPA unanimously decided to abstain from the presidential polls. However, the Election Commission of India held that the UNPA cannot ask its legislators to abstain from voting, quoting Section 171 C of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Process

Further information: President of India

As per the electoral calculation following were the number of votes for respective political parties. Electoral College (India)

Name of party Combined value of vote
Indian National Congress 281,015
Bharatiya Janata Party 253,269
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 81,722
Bahujan Samaj Party 62,862
Samajwadi Party 58,403
Rashtriya Janata Dal 32,727
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 29,752
Janata Dal (United) 27,057
Nationalist Congress Party 23,788
Shiv Sena 22,178
Biju Janata Dal 19,709
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 19,280
Communist Party of India 15,130
Telugu Desam Party 14,744
Shiromani Akali Dal 13,356
Janata Dal (Secular) 11,956
Pattali Makkal Katchi 8,156
Trinamool Congress 8,070
Telangana Rashtra Samithi 7,388
All India Forward Bloc 7,365
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha 7,128
Revolutionary Socialist Party 6,360
Rashtriya Lok Dal 4,912
Asom Gana Parishad 4,908
Lok Jan Shakti Party 4,742
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference 4,140
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 3,904
Indian National Lok Dal 2,940
Jammu & Kashmir People's Democratic Party 2,568
Indian Union Muslim League 2,480
Sikkim Democratic Front 1,633
Nagaland People's Front 1,587
Mizo National Front 1,584
Kerala Congress 1,316
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen 1,300
Assam United Democratic Front 1,160
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation 1,041
Republican Party of India (Athvale) 883
Swatantra Bharat Paksh 883
Kerala Congress (Mani) 760
Samata Party 717
Bharatiya Navshakti Party 708
Indian Federal Democratic Party 708
National Loktantrik Party 708
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) 708
Jan Surajya Shakti 700
West Bengal Socialist Party 604
Gorkhaland National Liberation Front 453
Rashtriya Parivartan Dal 416
Gondvana Ganatantra Party 393
United Goans Democratic Party 372
All Jharkhand Students Union 352
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi 352
Peasants and Workers Party of India 350
Orissa Gana Parishad 298
Janata Party 296
Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party 288
Rashtriya Samanta Dal 262
Akhil Bharatiya Loktantrik Congress 208
Bharatiya Janshakti Party 208
Jan Morcha 208
Rashtriya Swabhimaan Party 208
Uttar Pradesh United Democratic Front 208
Uttarakhand Kranti Dal 192
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam 176
Jharkhand Party 176
Akhil Bharitiya Sena 175
Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha 175
Akhil Jan Vikas Party 173
Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra 156
United Democratic Party 153
Congress (Secular) 152
Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) 152
Indian National League 152
JSS 152
Kerala Congress (Balakrishna) 152
Kerala Congress (Secular) 152
Democratic Socialist Party 151
Jharkhand Party (Naren) 151
Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha 131
Kannada Nadu Party 131
Republican Party of India 131
Rajasthan Samajik Nyaya Manch 129
Asom Gana Parishad (Pragatishel) 116
Autonomous State Demand Committee 116
Loko Sanmilon 116
Manipur People's Party 90
Democratic Movement 72
Jammu & Kashmir Awami League 72
Meghalaya Democratic Party 68
National People's Party 54
Himachal Vikas Congress 51
Loktantrik Morcha Himachal Pradesh 51
Nationalist Democratic Movement 45
Pondicherry Munnetra Congress 48
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party 40
Save Goa Front 40
Hill State People's Democratic Party 34
Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement 34
Mizoram People's Conference 24
Arunachal Congress 16
Zoram Nationalist Party 16
Hmar People's Convention 8
Maraland Democratic Front 8
Independents 32,202

Figures are based upon and . Figure on Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha seats do not take into consideration splits, mergers, defections, expulsions and by-elections after general elections have been held.

Know Pratibha Patil

Know Pratibha Patil is part of the political campaign launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the presidential election of 2007. It consists of a website and a PDF booklet (titled "Presidential Election 2007"), created by the BJP under the banner of Project India. Both contain the party's allegation in the form of a compilation of articles from various media. While announcing the website at a press conference, the BJP party general secretary Arun Jaitley also distributed a printed form of the booklet and described it as a compilation of articles / editorials from newspapers on the Presidential contest.[9][10]

The stated objective of the site is to "educate the people about Pratibha Patil, the nominee of UPA and Indian left for Indian presidential election scheduled on 19 July 2007". To support this, the website consists of various sections like 'Cartoon,' 'Pratibhaspeak' and 'UPA Doublespeak' and includes links to video clippings and articles that refer to the various allegations levelled against Pratibha Patil.

The website declares :

Even though the people do not elect the Rashtrapati, they have a vital stake in the Presidential poll since the winner will become head of the Republic of India. They have a right to know whether the likely winner is worthy of becoming the Head of State of the world's largest democracy. The need to know whether the person embodies, as far as possible, the lofty ideals enshrined in the Constitution of India, of which he or she will be the custodian, or he/she will be a rubber stamp of those who have catapulted him/her to the high Office.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley talking to news-persons called the website a "campaign to provide an informed choice to the electorate (the electoral college)". "The voter has a right to the information about the candidate he is voting for. This effort is intended for an informed choice of the electorate," Jaitley said.[11]

Arun Jaitley did not respond when asked what would happen to the right of information when people are "informed" only about one of the two Presidential candidates. He said the website would vanish after 21 July when the Presidential election result will be out.[9]

However the website can still be viewed via archive.org[12]

An INC spokesperson commented:

The exercise is futile and aimed at denigrating the office of President and maligning an individual.... There is a frustrated section in the BJP, a queer combination of the senile and juvenile that was denigrating institutions.[13]

BJP division

The Times of India reported that a section of BJP leaders had initially looked divided over supporting this campaign against Pratibha Patil. Party chief Rajnath Singh seemed reluctant to be drawn into a "personal attack" while senior party leader L. K. Advani spoke at length on the "pliant President" issue at the party's national executive last month.[11] Daily News and Analysis also reported on the apparent differences among senior leaders on this campaign and had this quote:

"Rajnath Singh has virtually dissociated himself from all this. Nor has there been any statement so far by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee attacking Patil," a party functionary said.[14]

Results

  MPs MLAs Total
Pratibha Patil 312,936 325,180 638,116
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat 164,256 167,050 331,306

Source: "India gets first woman president". NDTV.com. 2007-07-21. Retrieved 2007-07-21. 

References

External links

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