Question

The ballot papers for the election to the President of India should be printed in two colours

• A. in green for use of Members of Parliament and in pink for use by the Members of the State Legislative Assemblies
• B. in red for use of Members of Parliament and in pink for use by the Members of the State Legislative Assemblies
• C. in red for use of Members of Parliament and in yellow for use by the Members of the State Legislative Assemblies
• D. in blue for use of Members of Parliament and in red for use by the Members of the State Legislative Assemblies

Hint:

To remember this: Green is like the green carpet in the Lok Sabha (Parliament), and Pink is the color used for MLAs in state elections.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Concept: The election for the President of India uses a system of proportional representation with a single transferable vote. Since the electoral college consists of two distinct groups (MPs and MLAs) with different vote values, the Election Commission uses color-coded ballot papers to distinguish between them easily during the counting process.

Step 1: The Electoral College composition.
The voters in a Presidential election are: 1. Elected members of both Houses of Parliament (MPs)
2. Elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States (MLAs)

Step 2: The Color-Coding Rule.
To ensure clarity and avoid errors in calculation (since an MP's vote has a much higher value than an MLA's vote), the Election Commission specifies the following colors:
• Green: For Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha).
• Pink: For Members of State Legislative Assemblies. $Green \rightarrow \text{MP}$
$Pink \rightarrow \text{MLA}$

Step 3: Reason for the distinction.
Each MP currently has a fixed vote value (700 in recent years), while the value of an MLA's vote varies from state to state based on the population. Separating them by color allows the returning officers to group the ballots according to their respective mathematical weights. Final Answer: Option A