India
Election Process in India

Election Process in India | Types of Elections

Understanding the Basics of Elections in India

Importance of Voter Awareness

  • Many are unaware of essential election information.
  • Discussing the basics an eligible voter should know.

Government Structure

  • Federal System: India follows a federal system with two types of governments: Central and State.
  • Central Government:
    • Indian Parliament (Bharatiya Sansad): Supreme legislative body.
    • Composed of two houses: Rajya Sabha (Upper House) and Lok Sabha (Lower House).
    • Parliament makes laws with these two houses, implemented nationwide by the President.
    • Rajya Sabha: Max 250 members, currently 245 members.
    • Lok Sabha: Max 552 members, currently 545 seats.

Functioning of Parliament

  • Members meet in the House of Parliament, Delhi.
  • Meetings are under the President, who has the right to call or cancel meetings.
  • Focus on how Parliament members are elected.

Types of Elections in India

General Elections (Lok Sabha)

  • Held every 5 years, members are directly elected by the people.
  • 543 seats are elected, with 2 seats nominated by the President for the Anglo-Indian community.
  • Seats allocated based on population, e.g., 7 seats in Delhi, 80 in UP (2014).
  • Winning party needs more than 50% of the seats (272 out of 543).

Rajya Sabha Elections

  • Members elected indirectly by MLAs.
  • 250 members, 238 elected by MLAs, 12 appointed by the President with special knowledge in various fields.
  • Members serve for 6 years, with 1/3 elected every 2 years.
  • Uses the Single Transferable Vote System (STV).

Vidhan Sabha Elections (State Legislative Assembly)

  • MLAs are elected by public voting every 5 years, different times for different states.
  • Seats are fixed per state, party with more than 50% seats forms the state government.
  • If no party wins 50%, alliances can be formed to achieve a majority, e.g., Delhi Vidhan Sabha 2013.

Voting Considerations

Who Should You Vote For?

  • Voting is a duty and a right as responsible citizens to elect good governance.
  • Evaluate candidates based on education, qualifications, career, motives, personality, and credibility.
  • Best local candidates lead to better overall governance.

Conclusion

  • Commitment to vote in the upcoming elections.
  • Encouragement for others to vote and share the video.
  • Voting leads to a better government and a better India.

Details

Many of us are not aware of the basic things that a voter should know about the election. Today we will discuss the things that an eligible voter should know before voting. For example, what is the process of the election we are going to vote in? Before knowing the election process, let's understand the structure of the Government of India. The Constitution of India follows the Federal System. According to the Federal System, there are two types of Governments in India. Central Government and State Government. Let's start with the Central Government. Indian Parliament means Bharatiya Sansad. Parliament of India is the Supreme Legislative Body of the Republic of India. Parliament of India is made up of two houses. Rajya Sabha Upper House and Lok Sabha Lower House. Parliament makes laws with the help of these two houses. After the laws are passed by the Parliament, they are implemented by the President in the whole country. According to the Constitution of India, there can be a maximum of 250 members in the Rajya Sabha. According to the current laws and provisions, there are 245 members in the Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, there can be a maximum of 552 members. Currently, there are 545 seats in the Rajya Sabha. All these members meet in the House of Parliament in Delhi. They discuss the laws. These meetings are held under the President of India. The President has the right to call and cancel the meeting. We understood what the Parliament is. Our main focus is how the Parliament members are elected. So, from this topic, we come to the main topic, Types of Elections in India. Basically, there are three types of elections. General Elections i.e. Lok Sabha Elections, Rajya Sabha Elections, and State Assembly Elections. Lok Sabha Elections are held every 5 years. Its members are directly elected by the people of India. For this purpose, as I said, there are currently 545 seats. Two of these seats nominate Angelo Indian Community as the President of India. Only 543 seats are left for which voting is done. These seats are allocated to each state in different areas. And Lok Sabha seats of each state are fixed. These seats are divided according to the population. For example, in the 2014 General Election, there were 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. And there were 80 seats in UP. Because the population of UP is the highest in the state. Now, according to these seats, candidates are elected for each seat. These candidates represent different parties. After voting, the party that wins more than 50% seats becomes the government of that party. That means, out of 543 seats, a party needs more than 50% seats to win the majority. Which is 272. For example, in 2014, BJP won 282 seats in Lok Sabha. And total 363 seats were won by the party along with NDA. After that, the leader of the winning party is appointed as the Prime Minister. These Lok Sabha members elect the Prime Minister by voting. The upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be in April and May 2019. Now, let's talk about the Upper House. The election system of Rajya Sabha is completely different from Lok Sabha. Because as soon as the Lok Sabha members are elected by voting, Rajya Sabha members are elected indirectly by the public. In which MLAs vote and choose the members of Rajya Sabha. Rajya Sabha has 250 members. Out of which, 238 members are elected by MLAs of different states and union territories. And the remaining 12 members are appointed by the President of India. The condition is that these 12 members should have special knowledge and experience in Arts, Science, Literature and Social Services. For example, Sachin Tendulkar and actress Rekha were nominated under this in 2012. The seats of Rajya Sabha of each state are fixed. The number of Rajya Sabha members a state can send depends on its population. Every Rajya Sabha member stays in the office for 6 years. And in this, 1 third seats are elected every 2 years. So for Rajya Sabha elections, MLAs, i.e. members of Vidhan Sabha, elect the members of Rajya Sabha through the STV system, i.e. Single Transferable Vote System. This STV system is a bit complicated. If we understand it now, the video will be very long. So for now, let's leave it. And let's move to our next part, which is Vidhan Sabha Elections, i.e. State Legislative Assembly. Vidhan Sabha Elections means that in a state, the members of Vidhan Sabha, i.e. MLAs, are elected by public voting. Like Lok Sabha, the seats of Vidhan Sabha of each state are also fixed. Candidates from different parties fight for the seats of MLAs in different areas of a particular state. Its elections are also held every 5 years like Lok Sabha. The only difference is that the elections of different states are held at different times. For example, recently, only Vidhan Sabha elections were held in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, and Telangana. Similarly, Vidhan Sabha elections are held at different times in every 5 year time period of a state. So, simply, after the elections, the party that wins more than 50% of the seats, is won by the majority. And in that state, their government is formed. And in the majority, the elected MLAs choose their leader as the Chief Minister of the state. Here, there is a question that what will happen if any party does not win more than 50% of the seats? An example of this is Delhi's Vidhan Sabha elections in 2013. In which, there are a total of 70 seats, in which after the elections, the big parties won 31 seats, BJP won 31 seats, AAP won 28 seats, and Congress won 8 seats. But, as the majority wants 36 seats, BJP was unable to form a government. So, the first preference is that the party that has the most seats, can form a government by making an alliance with another party. BJP was given the first preference, but it was unable to form an alliance with anyone. Then, AAP got the second preference, so they formed an alliance with Congress and formed their government. So, if there is a situation where no party wins more than 50%, then they can form a government by making an alliance with another party. In which, terms and conditions are defined. So, now let's come to the point, who should be voted for? In 2019, Lok Sabha elections are coming up, and in this election, 13 crore new voters have registered. In 2014 elections, even after having the highest vote percentage, 2 out of 3 registered voters did not vote. All of us want to do something for our country. National love is such a thing, if I say, it is in every citizen, then it will not be wrong. So, as a responsible citizen, it is not only our right, it is our duty to vote. Because, through our votes, good people will come from every corner of our country and form a good government. Now, a big question always arises in our mind, that who should be voted for? On what basis should we vote? There is a very simple answer to this. As we understood, what is the structure of the parliament? How is the Lok Sabha election? From this, we understood that in the Indian constitution, everything about this is already written in a very structured way. Our work is to think about the candidates from our area, from different parties. Their education, qualification, career, aspirations, motives, personality, credibility, we have to see all these things. Because, if we want to get work done in our area, then ultimately the MP of our area will address and implement that. In the same way, if we choose the best person from our area, then automatically, mostly better people will reach the Lok Sabha. And will form the best possible government.

Structure Of Indian Government