IMPHAL, June 22: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma’s stint at the Rastrapati Bhavan remains bleak even though the BJP has thrown its weight behind his candidature.
The former NCP leader PA Sangma’s name was first floated by AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha and BJD chief and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
However, the numbers that would lead him to the Rastrapati Bhavan remains bleak even with the main opposition party BJP (2,23,885 votes) and its allies in the National Democratic Alliances supporting him.
Out of the total 10,98,882 votes, NDA have only 28% voting share (3,04,785) in the electoral college while the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have 42% vote share (4,49,133) including Trinamool Congress (45,925). The vote share of the two regional parties (BJD and AIADMK) which projected Sangma is very less.
In such a scenario the crucial player in the presidential race is non- NDA, non- UPA, if they support the Sangma with their 24% (2,62,408) vote share, then the equation possibly would favor the former Lok Sabha Speaker.
In the 10, 98,882 vote value of 2012 Presidential poll, a total of 4,896 voters (including the MLAs and MPs) would exercise their franchise and it would seal the fate of the candidates through single transferable vote method.
To determine the vote value of an MLA in a state, a formula is use to calculate the number and 1971 census figures are used for the purpose. As per the provision of the Article 55 of Indian Constitution (election of President), to secure “uniformity in the scale of representation of the different States at the election of the President”, and it is calculated according to the 2 (a) of the article as; the population figure of a state is divided by thousand times of the assembly seats.
In the case of Manipur, the vote value of MLA would be- Population/ (Assembly seats x1000) i.e 10,73,000/(60×1000)=18. So, value of vote of each MLA would be 18 and the total number of votes Manipur has in the Electoral College is 60 (no of MLA) x18 (value of vote) =1080.
Manipur has three MPs and the total vote is 2124.