This Mumbai Couple Thinks One Of Them Should Be President Of India
Meet the Mumbai couple who want to be India’s President and Vice President
From Gillbert Hill to Raisina Hill. That’s the journey Mumbai-based social workers Mohammed Patel and Saira Patel want to make. And to do this, they’ve nominated themselves for the role of President of India.
According to the pair, they’ve already created history. They’ve become the first couple to contest the presidential election concurrently, and Saira Patel claims she is the first Muslim woman to throw her hat into the ring. They are now hoping that their nominations will pass through scrutiny on Thursday next week.
The Indian Constitution states that any citizen of the country above the age of 35, who is eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha, and who does not hold an office of profit in the Government of India or the government of any state or local government, can contest the presidential election. These are the broad criteria, but there are also a few more stipulations.
First off, a contestant, when filing his or her nomination, must deposit Rs 15,000. According to Patel, several hopefuls were unable to file their nominations because they were unable to cough up this amount. Second, and perhaps the biggest cause of worry for the Patels, is that a candidate’s nomination must be signed by at least 50 eligible voters as proposers and 50 as seconders. The voters here are members of parliament (MP), and members of the legislative assemblies (MLA) of the states.
Mohammed Patel is in dialogue with local MLAs to try and drum up enough support to enter the next leg of the race.
Win Or Lose, It Doesn’t Matter
The true objective of the Patels, however, is not simply a change of scenery. They want to prove a point: that every Indian citizen has the right to contest the election for the post of president.
“When it came time for the nominations to be filed for the elections to the post of President of India, I decided to contest, but not alone. I decided that even my wife would contest with me, so that the world could see how democracy works in India,” said Mohammed Patel.
Of course, even if both manage to get the requisite signatures to qualify them, only one of them can become President. What will the other do?
“This same question was posed to us by the returning officer, Anoop Mishra, who accepted our nominations,” said Mohammed Patel. “We told him then that the election for the post of vice president would start in two month’s time. We’ll give that a shot too!”
He went on to say that it was unfortunate that the election for the post of president, which is supposed to be devoid of campaigning by political parties, ends up being dominated by the ruling party and the opposition parties, who each field their own candidate.