Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel questions vote value based on 1971 Census

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Monday termed the use of 1971 Census figures for calculation of MPs’ and MLAs’ vote value in the presidential poll a matter of "concern".

Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

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Goel demanded that the vote value be calculated based on the 2011 Census figures.

The value of a Delhi MLA's vote is 58. Delhi Assembly has a strength of 70 members.

"It is a matter of concern for a democracy that the calculation of the voting right value of electors in the presidential election is based on a 51-year-old census conducted in 1971. It should be updated as per the last census in 2011," Goel said.

The Constitution (84th) Amendment Act, 2001 provides that until the relevant population figures for the first census to be taken after the year 2026 have been published, the population of the states for the purposes of calculation of value of votes for the Presidential election will mean the population as ascertained at the 1971 census.

The value of a member of the state Assembly is calculated by dividing population of the state/Union Territory (1971 census) by the total number of elective seats in the state assembly multiplied by 1,000, according to the Election Commission of India.

Goel, however, said the number of seats has been increased in the state Assemblies as well as the Parliament, so the calculation of value of electors’ votes in Presidential election should also be updated.

A total of 80 electors, including 70 MLAs, 7 Lok Sabha MPs and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi cast their votes in the Presidential election, he said.

"The MLAs in state Assemblies and MPs in Lok Sabha have increased after 1971. It feels strange, however, that the value of their vote is based on the 1971 Census," said the Assembly Speaker.