Indian Presidential Elections-2012: Pranab Mukherjee New President!

The Republic of India has got a new President elected today, July 22, 2012. Pranab Mukherjee, the former Finance Minister and the chief trouble shooter for the coalition government of India, has been declared elected for the top office. The poll for the post took place on 19^th July and counting of votes was taken up from today.

As expected, Pranab Mukherjee swept the elections winning nearly 70 percent of total votes cast. He got astounding support from the members of the Indian Parliament irrespective of party lines. The votes in the Indian states split up depending on which political party the particular state government belonged to, but there were surprises too in some of them in favor of Pranab. The fact that Pranab Mukherjee was a candidate no political party could possibly object got vindicated in the results.

It had been a straight contest between the UPA-2 (United Progressive Alliance—the ruling coalition) nominated Pranab Mukherjee and the largely self-styled candidate PA Sangma who was proposed by two regional parties initially and got nominated in the last minute by the NDA (National Democratic Alliance—the opposition of India), of course, with quite a few differences within it.

The Indian Presidential Election is not a direct poll with the people of the country voting while it is a direct election in the US. The system of Indian Presidential Poll is based on proportionate voting—the voters being the Members of both houses of Parliament (MP) and the Members of the Legislative Assemblies (MLA) and the Legislative councils of the states and union territories of the country. The value of the vote of An MLA is arrived at by dividing the total population of the state by the number of MLAs of that state multiplied by 1000. The vote value of an MP is arrived at by dividing the total of MLAs’ vote value by the number of MPs. Then both of the vote values are added to arrive at the grand total votes of the country. To get elected a Presidential candidate has to cross the halfway benchmark of total vote value.

In the Indian Presidential Elections-2012 Pranab Mukherjee secured 7, 13,763 votes crossing the halfway mark of 5, 25,140 votes with quite a few members abstaining. PA Sangma could secure only 3, 15,987 votes. Messages of greeting poured in for Pranab and the Prime Minister, the Congress President and other dignitaries visited him at his residence. The defeated candidate PA Sangma congratulated Pranab too, but at the same time he announced his resolve to go to the court alleging bias and partisanship in the process of the Presidential Elections-2012.

After a lot of twists and turns, and bouts of acrimony in the race to the Presidential Elections, Indiahas finally got a worthy personality for the top post. Congratulations to Pranab Mukherjee! He is the 13^th President of India to be elected and will be sworn in on July 25, 2012. The outgoing President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to deliver a farewell address to the nation on the evening of July 24.

Now it is over to the people of USAfor electing their President.

Indian Presidential Elections-2012: Finally Mamata U-Turns To Support Pranab!

After ushering in the most bizarre twist to the Indian Presidential Elections-2012 and after maintaining the most unmitigated suspense over her party's support Mamata Bannerji, finally, decided to vote for Pranab Mukherjee--the Presidential candidate nominated by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA-2). The unstoppable Chief Minister of West Bengal had earlier said that her party, the TrinamoolCongress (TMC), would declare its decision 72 hours before the polling date on July 19, 2012. And today, with less than 48 hours to go, she informed the press in Kolkata that her party had no other option but to support Pranab and that she was doing it to uphold democratic traditions as abstaining from voting would've amounted to betrayal of the people. If fact, after her Kalam dramaMamata became helpless as her partner-of-the-day Mulayam Singh Yadav dumped her the moment Pranab Mukherjee’s name was officially announced. But the firebrand leader maintained even today that Pranab was a poor choice and Kalam had been the ideal one.

Anyway, the  'dear sister' had finally come out in favor of her ‘elder brother' perhaps thus ending the dilemma of the people of West Bengal in being able now to freely rejoice over the prospect of having the first ever Bengali President of the country. In the preceding days Mamata had been continuously approached by both Pranab Mukherjee and the self-styled Presidential candidate PA Sangma for her precious support. Now, the road for Pranab's landslide victory is almost clear while PA Sangma would be feeling utterly disappointed and maybe even let down. The Presidential Poll had become a contest thanks to the last minute decision of the main national opposition party (BJP) to nominate PA Sangma. 

Meanwhile, the process of electing India's Vice-President had also begun with UPA-2 nominating the present VP Hamid Ansari for a second term and the opposition's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominating veteran BJP leader, Jaswant Singh, for the post. The Vice-Presidential Elections-2012 is also poised for a straight contest between the two with odds in favor of Hamid Ansari as all of UPA-2 partners and the Left alliance had decided to support him. While several NDA partners who shied away to vote for Pranab Mukherjee had come back into the alliance to vote for Jaswant Singh the latter's chances were still considered dim. The ‘democratic’ contests for the prestigious posts of the country have come about thanks to a 'committed' opposition who does not believe in 'consensus' in the nation's interest and desperately want a mid-term poll to further aggravate the inflationary trends for which it always condemns the ruling coalition! 

'Pained' Mamata reiterated again her 'commitment' to oppose the ruling coalition from within on economic reforms that she did not believe in and true to her nature she kept the suspense on regarding her support for the Vice-Presidential candidate. For a change she did not mention the mandatory hours, but only said there was still enough time! Reports suggest she is most likely to support Ansari too as the Prime Minister had already requested her.

All set now for the 14^th Indian Presidential Elections-2012 on 19^th July and the results to be declared on July 22, 2012. 

Indian Presidential Elections-2012: The Race Turns Acrimonious!

Campaigning for the 14^th Presidential Elections-2012 started in full swing from June 30, 2012 after the two contesting candidates filed their nominations on 28^th June. While the citizens of India hoped for a dignified contest things threatened to take an acrimonious turn due to allegations and elements of desperation.

PA Sangma, the self-styled candidate initially proposed by a regional party of the eastern state of Odisha and ultimately supported by the national opposition party, was seemingly desperate to reach the Raisina Hill (the Presidential palace or Rashtrapati Bhavan is located in this area) playing on his tribal card and on the first ever tribal president of the country phenomenon stoutly. On July 2 his desperation became vocal as he chose to attack Pranab Mukherjee, the candidate supported by the ruling alliance and most other major political parties. .

Sangma demanded Mukherjee’s candidature be cancelled as Mukherjee was ineligible for the contest by allegedly holding on to an office of profit on the date of his filing nominations. Mukherjee was the Chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata. His poll managers immediately pointed out that Mukherjee resigned from the post on June 20 and that the office was also an honorary one, and that the concerned documents were already submitted.   On July3, on the basis of those documents the returning officer rejected Sangma’s claims and confirmed the existence of the two candidates for the elections on. Things did not end there though.

Sangma, now backed by his national ally, went on to allege that the documents were forged and asked the returning officer as to how he rejected the claims. As it was becoming increasingly acrimonious the Election Commission decided to ask the returning officer to show the documents. Alleging further that the papers were prepared in the last minute to save Mukherjee’s nomination PA Sangma and his political sponsors had kept even the option of approaching the courts open.

Pranab Mukherjee and his political sponsors dismissed the allegations as ‘frivolous’ and went ahead with the scheduled campaigning. Mukherjee asserted that the papers were signed by him only and that he failed to understand how he could forge his own signatures!

Earlier during initial stages of campaigning PA Sangma also threw a challenge of having an open debate with Pranab Mukherjee, maybe in the spirit of the US Presidential Poll unfolding in this same year. But as any intelligent reader would understand the citizens of India do not participate directly in electing their President like in the US. And, therefore, the challenge was dismissed as ‘meaningless’. Interestingly, another campaign has been going on to fathom Indian support for President Obama, and, a majority of Indians turn out in favor of Obama’s reelection. Why not, President Obama vibrates very well with a whole lot of Indians!

Meanwhile, the inimitable Mamata Bannerji announced that her party would declare their preferred candidate only 72 hours before the poll on July 19! Apart from creating suspense for all concerned this move also put the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), the main constituent of the Indian Left alliance, in some spot of trouble. The CPM justified its support for Mukherjee by saying that it did not want to end up in the same side with Mamata’s party. Now, if Mamata decides to reunite with the ruling coalition and support Mukherjee, the CPM though belonging to the same state of West Bengal would find it quite embarrassing.

The ironies involved in this Presidential Elections get a little more acute with the Chief Minister of Meghalaya opposing Sangma’s candidature. Both of them belong to the same North Eastern state and to the same tribe.

Seemingly, this contest is never going to ease up till the climax on July 22!

As per latest reports Sangma's sponsor, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threatened to file an election petition against Pranab Mikherjee with the Election Commission of India. The Congress responded to the move by terming it as 'childish tricks'!