Electoral College

An Electoral College is a specially formed body of elected representatives that votes on behalf of the wider public to choose someone for office — used in India specifically to elect the President.

• India's Electoral College for the presidency includes MPs from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, plus MLAs from every state and from the union territories of Delhi and Puducherry.
• Notably excluded are several categories of members who aren't directly elected themselves — nominated Rajya Sabha members, nominated state assembly members, and members of Legislative Councils — precisely because the whole point is to have only directly elected representatives choose the President.
• This layered arrangement is a deliberate design choice: since the President represents the entire country rather than one constituency, the Electoral College spreads that responsibility across representatives from every state and both houses of Parliament, rather than any one small group.
• The same electoral college system, with elected and nominated members of both Houses of Parliament, is used again for electing the Vice President.