E-Paper
Presidential election: Why securing valid nomination difficult for commoners
Several conditions have been put up to discourage non-serious persons from filing nominations.
The election for the next President of India will be held on July 18, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a comfortable position to ensure the victory of the candidate nominated by it. The Opposition is likely to put up a joint candidate and consultations have already begun. While any Indian citizen who has completed 35 years of age and is eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha can file a nomination for the presidential election, it has become difficult for a commoner to secure a valid nomination.
A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least fifty electors as proposers and at least fifty electors as seconders. Electors should be either a member of Lok Sabha or state assembly. The proposer and the seconder cannot be in both roles i.e. the proposer cannot become the seconder nor the seconder can become the proposer.
A security deposit of ₹15,000 should also be deposited either in cash with the Returning Officer or a receipt showing that the amount has been deposited by the candidate or on his behalf in the Reserve Bank of India or a Government Treasury should be furnished along with the nomination paper. Earlier this amount was ₹5,000.
These conditions have been put up to discourage non-serious persons from filing nominations.
But some people still go on to file the nomination without the proposers and seconders and get some publicity during this process despite the nomination becoming invalid.
In the 2017 presidential polls, a total of 108 nominations were filed by 95 candidates. A candidate can file four nomination papers. After scrutiny, only two names were left in the fray, NDA candidate Ramnath Kovind and Opposition candidate Meira Kumar. Kovind won by securing 6,61,278 votes, while Congress-backed Meira Kumar got 4,34,241 votes.
