Manner of Election – Value of Votes and Proportional Representation (Article 55)

Value of votes in a presidential election is not equal for every member of the electoral college — it is calculated through a formula laid down in Article 55, designed to give every state, regardless of its Assembly's size, a fair and uniform share of influence over who becomes President.

What Article 55 Says

Article 55(1) declares that, as far as practicable, there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different states at the election of the President. Article 55(2) then explains how that uniformity is achieved: to secure uniformity among the states, as well as parity between the states as a whole and the Union, the number of votes each elected member of Parliament and of a state Legislative Assembly is entitled to cast is fixed by a formula rather than left at one-member-one-vote.

The Value-of-Votes Formula

For MLAs, Article 55(2)(a) provides that every elected member of a state's Legislative Assembly has as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the state's population by the total number of elected members of that Assembly. In effect, each MLA's vote value rises with the state's population and falls as the Assembly's elected strength rises — a state with a comparatively large population and a relatively small Assembly will have MLAs with a higher individual vote value than a state where the population-to-seat ratio is lower. For elected Members of Parliament, the vote value is fixed by dividing the total votes assigned to all the state Assemblies' elected members by the total number of elected MPs in both Houses, so that the aggregate voting weight of Parliament as a whole is kept in balance with the aggregate voting weight of all the states as a whole.

Category	How vote value is determined
Elected MLA (state Assembly)	State population ÷ total elected Assembly members, expressed in multiples of 1,000
Elected MP (Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha)	Total votes of all state MLAs ÷ total number of elected MPs

Why Weighted Voting?

The purpose of this arrangement is twofold, as Article 55(1)-(2) itself states: uniformity among the states inter se, and parity between the states as a whole and the Union. Without such weighting, a state with a large Assembly but a smaller population could exercise disproportionate influence over the President's election simply by virtue of having more MLAs, while a populous state with a smaller Assembly would be under-represented. The formula corrects for this by tying an MLA's vote value to the ratio of population to elective seats, so states with a higher population-to-seat ratio carry proportionately more weight per legislator, and the overall system balances the combined voice of state legislatures against that of Parliament.

Election Method: Single Transferable Vote

Once vote values are fixed, the President is elected by the system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote, with voting by secret ballot. Voters (the MPs and MLAs in the electoral college) rank candidates by preference rather than casting a single vote for one candidate. To be declared elected, a candidate must secure a minimum quota of the total votes polled, calculated to ensure that the winner commands support representing an absolute majority of the effective vote, not merely a plurality — a method distinct from the simple first-past-the-post system used for direct Lok Sabha elections.

Constitutional Protection Against Easy Amendment

The manner of the President's election, and the value-of-votes formula that underpins it, is not something Parliament can alter by an ordinary law or a simple constitutional amendment. Under Article 368(2), any amendment affecting the manner of the President's election requires not just a special majority in Parliament but also ratification by the legislatures of not less than half of the states before receiving presidential assent — the same higher threshold that applies to amendments touching the distribution of legislative and executive powers between the Union and the states, the Supreme Court and High Courts, and Article 368 itself. This reflects the framers' view that the formula for electing the President, since it directly affects the relative weight of every state in the Union, is itself part of the federal structure of the Constitution.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• Memorise the two-part formula: MLA vote value from state population ÷ elected Assembly seats; MP vote value from total state votes ÷ total elected MPs.
• Know that changes to the President's election manner require ratification by half the state legislatures under Article 368(2).

Mains

• Explain how Article 55's value-of-votes formula reconciles state-level uniformity with Union-state parity in the presidential election.
• Discuss why the manner of the President's election is entrenched by the special amendment procedure under Article 368(2).

FAQ

Q1. Why don't all MLAs and MPs have equal voting weight in a presidential election? Because Article 55 fixes vote values through a population-and-seat-based formula, so that states are represented uniformly relative to their population and Parliament's aggregate weight balances that of the states as a whole.

Q2. How is an MLA's vote value calculated? By dividing the state's population by the total number of elected members of that state's Legislative Assembly, expressed in multiples of 1,000, as per Article 55(2)(a).

Q3. How is an MP's vote value calculated? By dividing the total votes assigned to all elected state Assembly members by the total number of elected MPs in both Houses of Parliament.

Q4. What voting system is used once vote values are fixed? Proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, with voting by secret ballot, requiring the winning candidate to cross a minimum quota rather than merely lead in a plurality.

Q5. Can Parliament change the manner of the President's election by a simple majority? No. Under Article 368(2), such a change requires a special majority in Parliament plus ratification by at least half the state legislatures, because it is treated as touching the federal structure.

Quick Revision

• Article 55(1): uniformity in scale of state representation, as far as practicable.
• Article 55(2)(a): MLA vote value = state population ÷ elected Assembly seats (in multiples of 1,000).
• MP vote value = total state votes ÷ total elected MPs.
• Election method: proportional representation, single transferable vote, secret ballot.
• Article 368(2): manner of President's election can be amended only with state-legislature ratification.

Sources

• Constitution of India — Part V, The Union — Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India.
• Constitution of India, 1950 — legislative.gov.in — official text of Articles 55 and 368.
• Election Commission of India — official site.

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.