The sudden death of the current President in 1977 necessitated the election of the President of India. This was the only instance when the President of India was elected without competition, a record that continues to this day. A total of 37 candidates had filed nominations, but Neelam Sanjiva Reddy held the highest constitutional post in India.
presidential election This was necessitated by the sudden death of President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on 11 February 1977. Vice President BD Jatti took over as the Acting President under Article 65(1) of the Constitution. As per the rules, in order to fill a vacancy in the office of the President, an election was required to be held within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy.
However, necessary steps to fill the vacancy could not be taken immediately as India General elections were held on 10 February 1977, which lasted till 13 May 1977. After that, assembly elections were held in 11 states in June-July.
Finally, on July 4, 1977, presidential elections were reported and polling was scheduled for August 6. Election Indian Commission as seen by News18, a total of 37 candidates filed their nominations.
On scrutiny, the Returning Officer – the then Secretary, Lok Sabha, Avtar Singh Rikhi rejected the nominations filed by 36 candidates and Reddy was the only valid candidate. Hence it became necessary neither to prepare nor publish the list of contesting candidates.
“After the last date fixed for withdrawal of candidates, 21st July, after 3.00 p.m., the Returning Officer declared the election result under section 8(1) of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Act, 1952 and elected Neelam Sanjiva Reddy unopposed. was declared. , This was the first time a candidate was declared elected for the highest office of President of India without any competition (sic),” reads the ECI document.
Section 8 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 lays down the procedure for contested and uncontested elections. It states that if there is only one candidate who has been validly nominated after the expiry of the period within which the candidature is liable to be withdrawn and the sole candidate has not withdrawn his candidature, the Returning Officer shall appoint that candidate to the post. declared duly elected for of the President (or Vice-Chairman, as the case may be).
The declaration of Reddy’s election as the President of India was signed by the Chief Election Commissioner on 21 July and sent to the Home Secretary. The Home Secretary read out the announcement made by the President on July 25, 1977, when he assumed office.
During the 1977 presidential election, the total electorate was 4,532 including elected members of the Lok Sabha (524), Rajya Sabha (232) and 22 state legislatures (3,776). Each Member of Parliament had 702 votes and the number of votes for each member of the State Legislative Assemblies varied from state to state on the basis of population.
The lowest value of votes was for the MLAs of Sikkim (seven) and the highest value of votes was for the MLAs of Uttar Pradesh (208). The value of votes was calculated on the basis of the 1971 census.
In the 1969 presidential elections, Reddy was the runner-up with 3.13 lakh votes and VV Giri was elected president with 4.01 lakh votes.
read all breaking news , today’s fresh news watch top videos And live TV Here.