Different Types Of Election In India

Author: Associate Megha Motwani

The crucial question of 2019, whom to vote for and how many types of election in India?  Mainstream media, social media everywhere we are witnessing a debate on who is going to be our prime minister? But one must acknowledge the fact that there’s no direct election for the prime minister. 

Considering the fact that in India majority of the citizens are not aware of the election procedures, and types of elections in India which a voter must be aware of, this article’s content is for that chunk of people who are deprived of such knowledge which an eligible voter must know before casting their vote.

Before understanding the election process and its various types, let's first understand the structure of the Government of India and types of elections in India. The constitution of India supports the federal system. According to this system, there are two types of government, one at the state level the state government and at the central level the central government. 

The government at the central level makes policies and gets them implemented. The lawmaking body or the legislature at the Centre is called parliament. The Indian Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India which is made of two houses that are - The Council of States Rajya Sabha (Upper House) and The House of The People Lok Sabha (Lower House). With the help of these two houses, the parliament makes laws. After the law is passed by parliament the same is sent to the President of India with whose permission the law is made applicable on the whole of India.

According to the constitution of India, there can be 250 members in Rajya Sabha and 552 members in Lok Sabha. All these members meet at the parliament and discuss the law. Such meetings are conducted under the supervision of the President of India who is the supreme authority to convene any meeting or call off it anytime. 

Now with knowing the basics let’s proceed towards the locus of this article i.e., how many types of elections in India. Basically, there are three types of election in India: 

• General election i.e., the Lok Sabha election,

• State assembly elections, and

• Rajya Sabha elections.

Let’s describe the types of elections held in india

The first type of election is the Lok Sabha election– These are conducted every 5 years and the members of this house are directly elected by the citizens of India. As stated above the Lok Sabha comprises 552 members among which 2 represents the Anglo-Indian community, these two representatives are elected by the President. Up to 20 members are there to represent the people of UTs; remaining 530 constituencies are then allocated to different areas of a state. 

As you know in India each state or UT is divided into parliamentary constituencies, these states and UTs are further divided into areas according to their population. There are 545 parliamentary constituencies in the Country and after deducting the constituency of Anglo-Indian there are 543 constituencies. For these 543 constituencies voting is then conducted. As the allocation of the constituency in a different area of a state is done according to the population of that area wherefore; Delhi has 7 Lok Sabha seats and Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats as among all of the states U.P had the largest population. 

The parties put their representatives in each area to fight an election and after voting the party who succeeds in securing the higher seat forms the government. The securing of a higher number of seats means here that the party must secure the majority of seats i.e., more than 50 % of the total of 543 seats, to be exact 272 seats or more. For example: in 2014 BJP secured 282 seats in Lok Sabha and with the alliance of NDA they secured 363 seats thereby winning the election. These Lok Sabha members who are in majority cast their vote for the post of Prime Minister most preferably, the winning party’s leader is then appointed as Prime Minister. 

Thus, when we vote in a Lok Sabha general election we elect a Member of Parliament (MP) from each Parliamentary Constituency, these MP’s and the 2 Anglo-Indians nominated by the President form the Lok Sabha.

The second election type in India is the state Legislative Assembly election or the Vidhan Sabha election – Each Parliamentary Constituency consists of few Assembly Constituencies. All the Assembly Constituencies are put together in a state form the Legislative Assembly of the state or the Vidhan Sabha. Under this type of election, the people of the particular state directly elect the member of the Vidhan Sabha i.e., the MLA’s or Members of Legislative Assembly who will form the state government. Thus, each state is governed by its own Legislative Assembly. From these constituencies or Members of Legislative Assembly are elected in the state assembly. 

Like Lok Sabha, the seats of the Legislative Assembly are also fixed. The candidates of various parties fight an election for MLA seats of different areas in a particular state. The election of MLA also takes place every 5 years. The difference is only that the election date is different for each state i.e., the election is not on the same date in every state. 

The party who wins by majority i.e., secures more than 50% of seats form its government in that state. The MLA’s in the majority then appoints their leader as the Chief Minister. The question arises here is – what if the parties fail to secure the criteria of having more than 50% of seats? To answer this I would like to shed light on the 2013 Delhi’s Vidhan Sabha election, which in total has 70 seats and after an election, the big parties like Bharatiya Janata Party, Aam Aadmi Party, and Congress secured 31, 28 and eight seats respectively. However, as per the criteria, a party must secure equal to or more than 36 seats in order to form their government which neither of the parties was able to achieve. In such a case the party must form an alliance with another party. The first preference was given to BJP but it did not form an alliance and the AAP did form an alliance with Congress and thus, formed its government in Delhi. 

Therefore, in such circumstances, if a party is unable to secure a majority it may after the alliance can form its government in that particular state.

The third election type in India is the Rajya Sabha election – The operating system of this house is totally different from that of the Lok Sabha as in later cases the members are elected directly. However, in the former case, the public indirectly chooses the members of the house. Here the role of MLA’s come into being as they are the one who gets to choose the members of this house on the behalf of the public. 

This house has a capacity of 250 members out of which 238 are elected by MLAs from different states and Union Territories and the remaining 12 are elected directly by the president. The condition precedent is that these members must possess knowledge in the field of art, science, literature, and society. For example cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar and actress Rekha were nominated as a member under this.

For each state, the number of Rajya Sabha seats is fixed and the number of members sent by the state legislature for occupying the seats of this house depends on the population of that state. The tenure of the members of this house is 6 years but for the one-third number of seats, the election is conducted every 2 years. For the election of Rajya Sabha members, the MLA’s i.e., the Vidhan Sabha members through the single transferable vote system chose the member of Rajya Sabha. 

Thus, after understanding the different types of election in india conducted in India and the structure of parliament and how the Lok Sabha elections are conducted. A voter must not be influenced by the main leader of any party and must always look upon the local candidate who will work in that area of a state. The emphasis must be given on the education, qualification, motives, future aspirations, personality and the credibility of candidates standing for the Vidhan Sabha election. As it is the immediate authority in an area responsible for the development of that area.

In this way, if the best candidate is chosen from every area, the Lok Sabha will then be having the best of candidates who will then form the best possible government.

So these articles give a complete picture of different types of election in india and how it is contested. Therefore three types of election in India decide the candidate to take India towards success and pride.