CORE President: office, election and vote value
Article 52 — President of India is the starting line of the Union executive: there shall be a President of India. The office is not ornamental in text; Article 53 vests Union executive power in the President, but later articles channel that power through a parliamentary cabinet. Article 54 — Election of the President builds a special electoral college: elected members of both Houses of Parliament and elected members of State Legislative Assemblies participate, and the constitutional explanation treats Delhi and Puducherry as State units for Articles 54 and 55. Nominated members do not vote in this election. Rajasthan's elected MLAs therefore matter in the presidential election, while nominated members of Parliament do not. Article 55 — Manner of election and value of vote supplies the equality formula. MLA vote value is linked to the State population and the number of elected MLAs, while MP vote value is adjusted so Parliament and the States remain balanced. The article's population explanation is affected by later census-freeze wording, so the formula and the population base should be read together. This is why a Rajasthan MLA's vote value is not the same as a small-State MLA's vote value. The President is elected by proportional representation through the single transferable vote and by secret ballot. The constitutional design protects federal balance because the President stands above party government but is chosen through elected federal units. It also prevents a simple Parliament-only majority from capturing the office, since State Assemblies form a constitutionally required part of the electorate. In application, the President's national mandate is indirect, weighted and federal, not a direct popular mandate. The common confusion is with Vice-President election, where elected and nominated members of both Houses of Parliament vote, but State MLAs do not.