According to Article 324 of the Indian constitution, the Election Commission of India (ECI), on June 15, 2022, announced the 16th Presidential Election to take place on July 18, 2022. With these elections, India will get its 15th President. Every President of India serves a tenure of five years as per Article 56.
The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, was elected on July 20, 2017, and won the elections against Meira Kumar with 65.65% votes. On July 25, 2017, he took the 14th Indian President oath.
Within five years, President Kovind has made some crucial decisions. He rejected six mercy petitions of four convicts of the 2012 Nirbhaya Delhi Gangrape case, a man named Sanjay and the Bihar mass murder accused, Jagat Rai.
He also imposed the President’s rule in three states of India: Jammu and Kashmir (former state), Maharashtra, and Puducherry. He also played a crucial role in revoking the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. His tenure will end on July 24, 2017.
Here are key details of the Presidential Elections 2022:
The Presidential Elections of 2022 will be held on July 18, 2022. However, if the counting needs to be done, it will be on July 21, 2022. Two candidates are contesting these elections. They are Droupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha.
As per the Election Commission of India, this time, the total value of the votes cast by all the Members of Parliament altogether is 5,43,200. The total value of the votes of all States combined is 5,43,231. The total number of voters for this election will be 4809.
Schedule for Presidential Elections 2022
The Election Commission of India has provided the following schedule for the Presidential Elections 2022:
| Issue of Election Commission’s notification calling the election | June 15, 2022 |
| Last date for making nominations | June 29, 2022 |
| Date for scrutiny of nominations | June 30, 2022 |
| Last date for the withdrawal of candidatures | July 02, 2022 |
| Date on which a poll shall, if necessary, be taken | July 18, 2022 |
| Date on which counting, if required, shall be taken | July 21, 2022 |
Know your Presidential Candidates
Droupadi Murmu
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), on June 21, 2022, announced Droupadi Murmu as their Presidential Candidate for the 2022 Presidential Elections. She entered politics in 1977 as the councillor of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. She became a minister in the government of Odisha in 2020 and served as the Governor of Jharkhand (the first female to hold such a position) in 2015.
Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha, a former Union Minister, filed his nomination for the Presidential Elections 2022 as an independent candidate. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh made the announcement. He announced that Sinha would be the only candidate from the Combined Opposition Parties for these elections.
He served as the Finance Minister of India from 1990 to 1991 and from 1998 to 2002. He then served as the Minister of External Affairs from 2002 to 2004. After leaving the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in April 2018, he joined the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in March 2021 as the party’s Vice President. Before filing his nomination for the Presidential Elections, he left his post.
