| "The schedule of the presidential polls is sacrosanct," a spokesperson of the Election Commission told Business Standard. The schedule, mentioned in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, makes it clear that the election will be held around July 15. |
| Likewise, the political parties will have to choose their nominees before June 26, which appears to be the tentative date for filing of nominations in case there is a contest. According to this schedule, the last date for withdrawal of nominations is June 28. |
| But why are political parties taking so much time to decide their nominees? The answer lies in the intricate formula to determine the value of the votes from each state and union territory. (Electoral college for presidential polls comprises legislators from states and union territories and members of Parliament). |
| The formula takes cognisance of the population of a state in relation to the number of legislators (members of Vidhan Sabhas). This puts a higher value to the votes of MLAs from states with higher population. |
| For this reason, political parties are taking time to work out their relationship with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has 208 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. The value of each vote polled from UP, at 208, is the highest in the country. This is followed by Tamil Nadu's 176. |
| Mayawati's rival Samajwadi Party has 97 seats in the Vidhan Sabha and the BJP 50. Hence, BSP's support is crucial for political parties. |
| The electoral college for presidential elections comprises 4,120 MLAs and 776 members from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. |
| Tentative poll schedule |
| June 12 Notification |
| June 26 Last date for filing of nominations |
| June 27 Scrutiny of nomination papers |
| June 28 Last day for withdrawal of nominations |
| July 15 Polling |
| July 22 Results |
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