Election of the President
Whenever the office becomes vacant, the new president is chosen by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of the Parliament and the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies (Vidhan Sabha). The election is held in accordance to the system of Proportional Representation by means of Single Transferable Vote method. The Voting takes place by secret ballot system. The manner of election of President is provided by Article 55. [1]
Electoral College
The value of votes cast by elected members of the state legislative assemblies and both houses of parliament were decided as per the provisions of article 55(2) of the Constitution of India. The details of number of voters and votes for this presidential election are given below.[5]
- Presidential elections in India involve proportional representation from respective states. The number of votes assigned to a particular voter from a state assembly is decided as follows.
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Constitutional role
Constitutional role of the Indian Constitution states "There shall be a President of India". Article 53(1)vests in the President the executive powers of the Union which are exercised either directly or through subordinate officers in accordance with the Constitution. Although the Constitution explicitly says that the president is the executive head of the state, real executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. This is inferred from Article 74 of the Indian Constitution, providing for a "... council of ministers to aid and advise the President who shall, in exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice".
The president of India shall, before entering upon his office, make and subscribe in the presence of the Chief Justice of India or, in his absence, the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court available, an oath or affirmation that he/she shall protect, preserve and defend the Constitution (Article 60).#  | Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dr Rajendra Prasad | 26 January 1950 | 13 May 1962 | |||
| 2 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 13 May 1962 | 13 May 1967 | |||
| 3 | Zakir Hussain | 13 May 1967 | 3 May 1969 | |||
| Varahagiri Venkata Giri * | 3 May 1969 | 20 July 1969 | ||||
| Muhammad Hidayatullah * | 20 July 1969 | 24 August 1969 | ||||
| 4 | Varahagiri Venkata Giri | 24 August 1969 | 24 August 1974 | |||
| 5 | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 24 August 1974 | 11 February 1977 | |||
| Basappa Danappa Jatti * | 11 February 1977 | 25 July 1977 | ||||
| 6 | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy |  | 25 July 1977 | 25 July 1982 | h | |
| 7 | Giani Zail Singh | 25 July 1982 | 25 July 1987 | |||
| 8 | Ramaswamy Venkataraman |  | 25 July 1987 | 25 July 1992 | ||
| 9 | Shankar Dayal Sharma | 25 July 1992 | 25 July 1997 | |||
| 10 | Kocheril Raman Narayanan | 25 July 1997 | 25 July 2002 | |||
| 11 | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |  | 25 July 2002 | 25 July 2007 | ||
| 13 | Pratibha Patil |  | 25 July 2007 | Incumbent |
- The symbol (*) with a light brown background indicates an acting president.