Apart from the future of the five states that voted for new governments in February-March, the Assembly polls 2022 will also have a bearing on the election of the President and Vice President of India in July-August this year.

The term of President Ram Nath Kovind will end on July 24 and the results of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa will help BJP and other parties in playing a decisive role in the presidential election.

BJP’s victory in four states has put the party on a stronger wicket on choosing the successor to President Ram Nath Kovind.

Unlike the Prime Minister who is elected by the people of India, the President is elected by an electoral college of 4,896 electors comprising 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 233 Rajya Sabha MPs and 4,120 MLAs. The value of the vote from the members of the upper and lower houses of Parliament is uniform across states at 708. However, the value differs for MLAs, depending on the number of voters who have elected them.

The win in Uttar Pradesh, which is the most populous state in the country, will help the BJP as the votes of its MLAs carry the highest value at 208.

The total value of votes of the electoral college is 10.98 lakh. Any nominee for the presidential post will require 5.49 lakh votes to win the election.

If the elections in UP went in favour of the Samajwadi Party, the BJP would have to seek the support of other parties like Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) who have a sizeable chunk of votes.

''It is advantage NDA now,'' P Sreedharan, former secretary general of the Lok Sabha, told news agency PTI.

The Uttar Pradesh assembly has a total vote value of 83,824, while Punjab and Uttarakhand have 13,572 and 4,480, respectively. The total value of votes of the Goa Assembly is 800, while that of Manipur is 1,080.

As a result of the victories in UP, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, the BJP will now have a say in the presidential elections, a political observer told PTI.

The Opposition camp wants to nominate a strong candidate. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recently held meetings with the view to play a key role in the presidential election.

A section of the Opposition has pitched NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s name as a possible presidential candidate.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)