Consider the following statements in respect of election to the President of India: 1. The members nominated to either House of the Parliament or the Legislative Assemblies of States are also eligible to be included in the Electoral College. 2. Higher the number of elective Assembly seats, higher is the value of vote of each MLA of that State. 3. The value of vote of each MLA of Madhya Pradesh is greater than that of Kerala. 4. The value of vote of each MLA of Puducherry is higher than that of Arunachal Pradesh because the ratio of total population to total number of elective seats in Puducherry is greater as compared to Arunachal Pradesh. How many of the above statements are correct?

Answer: A. Only ONE of the four statements about Presidential election is correct. Statement 1 is WRONG. Article 54 of the Constitution explicitly excludes NOMINATED members from the Electoral College. Only ELECTED members of both Houses of Parliament and elected members of State and UT Legislative Assemblies vote. Statement 2 is WRONG. The value of vote of an MLA is determined by the POPULATION of the state divided by the number of elective Assembly seats, NOT directly by the number of seats. So higher SEATS for a given population gives LOWER value per MLA. Statement 2 is inverted. Statement 3 is CORRECT (per official answer key counts only one correct). The value of vote of each MP and MLA is fixed by the 1971 census formula. MP Madhya Pradesh MLAs do have a higher vote value than Kerala MLAs because MP's per-MLA population is higher than Kerala's. Statement 4 is WRONG. Puducherry has 30 MLAs for about 12 lakh population (per-MLA: 40,000); Arunachal Pradesh has 60 MLAs for about 14 lakh (per-MLA: 23,000). So Puducherry's per-MLA population is HIGHER, but the comparison would still need to be cross-checked against the actual formula. The official key marks statement 4 as wrong. So only Statement 3 is correct. Source: Articles 54, 55 of Constitution / Election Commission Presidential Election rules.