SOME FACTS ON THE NEXT BIG POLL: ELECTING THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA

The election is due in May-June and must be concluded well before July 24 when President Pranab Mukherjee concludes his term.

The Assembly election results in five states recently have helped the BJP immensely. BJP’s recently elected MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab along with the allies have improved the NDA’s share in the electoral college by over 6.5 per cent.

The BJP along with its NDA partners now controls 47.5 per cent of the total vote pool.

At present, an MP contributes 708 votes while the vote of an MLA varies for different states in accordance with their population in 1971. Each Uttar Pradesh MLA carries 208 votes while that of his Sikkim counterpart contributes seven votes in the presidential election.

Total votes for the election is 1.99 million. The total pool of votes is almost equally shared by 4,120 MLAs and 776 MPs. Both groups contribute over 549,000 votes each.

Though the BJP is confident of getting the support of all other allies, Shiv Sena is the only oddball. Sena went with Congress candidates Pratibha Patil in 2007 and Pranab Mukherjee in 2012. Shiv Sena has about 2.5 per cent vote in the presidential poll.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is crucial in replacing the Shiv Sena. The party has a nearly 5.5 per cent share in the presidential electoral college.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has about 3.5 per cent votes, is another possibility, though against the backdrop of the recent local body polls and the BJP’s good showing, cooperation between the two seems a remote possibility.

It will be interesting to see which way Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress votes. The Telangana Rashtra Congress could be another prospective BJP ally.