Article 55 of CoI : Article 55: Manner Of Election Of The President

Explanation using Example

Imagine a scenario where India is conducting a Presidential election. The state of X has a population of 6 million and 60 elected members in its Legislative Assembly. According to Article 55:

1. Each elected MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) of state X would get votes equal to the state's population divided by the number of elected MLAs, and then divided by 1000. So, each MLA of state X would get 6 million / 60 = 100,000 / 1000 = 100 votes.
2. If there is a remainder of 500 or more when dividing the state's population by the number of MLAs, then each MLA's vote count is increased by one. In this case, there is no remainder since 100,000 is a multiple of 1000, so no additional votes are added.
3. An MP (Member of Parliament) would have votes determined by dividing the total MLA votes of all states by the number of elected MPs. If the total MLA votes are 5,400,000 and there are 800 MPs, then each MP would have 5,400,000 / 800 = 6750 votes. If there's a fraction after division, and if it's more than half, it's rounded up to the next whole number.
4. The President is elected not by a simple majority, but by a system of proportional representation through the single transferable vote, and the voting is done secretly.

This ensures that the President's election reflects the federal character of the Indian Union, balancing the votes of states based on their population and the votes of MPs, thus providing uniformity and parity.