You do not vote for the President. Neither, directly, does Parliament alone. The President is chosen by an electoral college of elected legislators, under a formula designed to balance Parliament against the states.
Who votes
The electoral college is made up of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the states, together with the Assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry.
Nominated members do not vote, in either Parliament or an Assembly, because the college is meant to reflect election rather than appointment. Members of Legislative Councils do not vote either, since they are indirectly elected. See how Rajya Sabha members are elected.
Votes have different values
This is the part that surprises people. Not every vote counts the same.
An MLA’s vote is weighted by the population of their state divided by the number of elected members in its Assembly, scaled by a fixed divisor. An MP’s vote is weighted so that the total value of all MPs’ votes equals the total value of all MLAs’ votes.
The effect is parity between the Union and the states as blocs, while giving an MLA from a populous state more weight than one from a small state. The population figures used are still those of the 1971 census, the same freeze that governs delimitation.
How the counting works
Not first-past-the-post. The election uses the single transferable vote with proportional representation, and voting is by secret ballot.
A candidate must secure more than half the total value of valid votes, which is the quota. If nobody reaches it on first preferences, the lowest candidate is eliminated and their votes transfer to the next preference, until someone clears the quota.
This means an Indian President always has, formally, majority support of the college rather than merely a plurality.
Who can stand
A citizen of India, at least 35 years old, qualified for election to the Lok Sabha, and not holding an office of profit. A nomination requires fifty proposers and fifty seconders from the electoral college, a threshold designed to keep the field serious.
Why it matters
The President’s functions are largely on ministerial advice, but the office is not ornamental in a hung house, where deciding whom to invite to form a government is a real judgement.
The Vice-President is elected differently
It is worth separating the two, because they are often assumed to work the same way. The Vice-President is elected by an electoral college of the members of both Houses of Parliament only, including nominated members, with no role for state Assemblies.
That difference follows the office. The President is head of a union of states, so the states vote. The Vice-President is ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, so Parliament alone chooses.
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