Election process in India

     

       An election is one of the processes in many countries, in which a person is elected through the majority of the voting count delivered by a group of voters. As India is a democratic country (a country ruled by people), the leaders are elected by the people themselves. India is generally governed by two main governments, namely the Central government and the State government. The Central government handles the duties for all over the country and the State government handles, for a corresponding state. The Central government will be headed by the Prime Minister and the State government will be headed by the Chief Minister. The people of India will be given a chance to elect in both Central and State elections. In this article, we will see the structure of both the governments and how people are elected in the election process.

Government of India

At first, the Indian country and its government is governed by its constitution called as the “Constitution of India”. The word “Constitution” refers to the Rule book of a country. It specifies all the powers, actions, and everything that needs to be followed to run a country. It also specifies certain rights, to the people in the country. It can be related to the rules to be followed in a game.  Every country follows its own constitution and frames its own set of rules. The Indian Constitution consists of several parts and acts. Whenever a correction has to be made in this constitution it has to be done by the Legislative body (The Indian Parliament).

Credit(Constitution of India): By Nikhil 1830978 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84554835

The Indian Parliament (Central Government) is a type of Bicameral legislature (law-making body). This is the place, where laws are made and converted into an amendment in the constitution, through the decision of the people in it. The word “Bicameral” means the legislature is split into two parts (houses). In Indian parliament, it is called as Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In the United States; which also follows a Bicameral legislature, the two houses are called as Senate and the House of Representatives. There are also other types of legislatures in the world, such as unicameral (one house-followed in Norway, Sweden, etc.,), unicameral with an advisory body (followed in China), and with no legislature (followed in Saudi Arabia, UAE). As India is one of the most populous countries in the world, a bicameral legislature would be the best one to choose, as it involves the detailed consideration of the decision, which involves the lives of many people.

Credit(Indian Parliament): By C.V.Arun Kumar 1830785 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87066490

Houses of Indian Parliament

     As there are so much of people in both governments, the selection of representatives for these houses is somewhat an intricate process. As you can see in the above picture; the two houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) are the main part of India. These houses make up the Indian Parliament. There is a total of 802 seats in the parliament, out of which, only 788 seats are filled as of now. The persons occupying these seats are called the Members of Parliament (MP). This fill is contributed by the population in each area across the country. If the population of India increases, then the area will be divided and another representative will be added to look after that area. Currently, out of 552 seats, only 545 seats are filled out in Lok Sabha. Similarly in Rajya Sabha, out of 250 seats, only 245 seats are filled out. Even among these 545 seats in Lok Sabha, only 543 seats are filled by the elected members (elected by voting of the people directly). The remaining two people are directly nominated by the President of India for the support of the Anglo-Indian Community. One more interesting point in the Lok Sabha is the selection of the Prime Minster. The Prime Minister holds the executive power of the country under the President. The selection of the Prime minister depends upon the majority of MP in the Lok Sabha.

Similarly in Rajya Sabha, out of 245 seats, only 233 seats are filled by the elected members (elected by voting of state representatives (MLA-Member of Legislative Assembly)). The remaining 12 members are appointed directly by the President of India, for the enhancement of various fields such as art, science, social service, etc. This nomination is done with the people, who have got succeeded in it. For example, Sachin Tendulkar- a cricketer was nominated as an MP by the President, during the period of 2012-2018. This nomination is done for his excellence in the Field of Sports. Now let’s see the Electoral process in both houses, with clear diagrammatic representation.

Lok Sabha Electoral Process (The House of People)

The Lok Sabha is one of the primary houses, which acts as the main source for creating a law. When an amendment has to be made in the constitution, it has to be first proposed as a bill in the Lok Sabha. Then after approval of the Lok Sabha, the bill is passed to the Rajya Sabha and to the president. Thus the bill becomes an amendment and the amendment becomes a law.

Process of amendment in the constitution

Assembly and Parliamentary Constituency in a State

       People of India generally vote for two main elections in India. One is for state assembly election (Selection of MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) in the corresponding assembly constituency of the State). The second one is for the central election (Selection of MP (Member of Parliament) in the corresponding parliamentary constituency of the State). Each state is divided into several assembly constituencies and parliamentary constituencies. The collection of assembly constituencies makes up the state and the collection of parliamentary constituencies makes up the country. Constituencies are divided based on the population in that particular area. A particular parliamentary constituency consists of several assembly constituencies. The assembly constituency is where the MLA stands and makes up the head (CM- Chief Minister). And the parliamentary constituency is where the Lok Sabha MP stands and makes up the head (PM- Prime Minister). In Lok Sabha Election, the people vote for the Parliamentary constituency in their respective states and the majority of the MP’s get the central government with its head as Prime Minister.

The Election Process in Legislative Assembly

 For example, as of to the year of 2022, the state of Tamil Nadu has 39 Lok Sabha MP’s (Parliamentary constituencies), 18 Rajya Sabha MP’s, and 234 assembly constituencies (MLA). Thus the people in the state of Tamil Nadu will vote for 39 Parliamentary constituencies and send their MPs to Lok Sabha. The number of Lok Sabha MP’s differs in each state. The main purpose of the Lok Sabha MP’s is to identify the problems in their state, clarify them with the central, and get remedies for them. The tenure period of each Lok Sabha MP is 5 years.  Thus for every 5 years, the Lok Sabha is renewed completely.

The election process in Parliamentary Constituency(Lok Sabha)

The electoral process in Rajya Sabha (The Council of States)

The election in the Rajya Sabha is a bit of a complicated process, as it is a form of indirect election. Unlike the Lok Sabha election, where the people elect the MP’s, and the majority of the MP’s choose the Prime Minister; the Rajya Sabha MP’s are elected by the elected representatives of the state assembly (MLA). One of the reasons for the indirect election is, to have a strong relationship between the state and the central. Another reason is to cut out the expenditure for the election process. The Council of States can only make recommendations over the bills to the House that is passed by the Lok Sabha.

Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in a State

    Like Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha MP’s for every state depend upon the population of the state but Rajya Sabha constituencies will be lesser than the parliamentary constituency ( Lok Sabha). Unlike the Lok Sabha, which has a period of 5 years and will be renewed after 5 years, the Rajya Sabha is a continuing chamber. This means the MP’s in Rajya Sabha will not have the election, all at the same time. Besides, 1/3 of the MP’s will have the election, while others have after that. Therefore the MP’s in the Rajya Sabha will have a tenure period of 6 years and an election will be there for every 2 years in the House. When moving into the electoral process, it starts with the majority of MLA. For example, we can take the same Tamil Nadu state. Tamil Nadu has a hold of 18MPs in Rajya Sabha (Counting differs in other states). As there will be an election for only 1/3 MP, there will be an announcement for 6MPs in Tamil Nadu.  Now Tamil Nadu will send 6MPs from its side. These 6 MPs are usually selected based on a formula by the election commission.

No. of votes required= ((Total number of legislative representatives*100)/Total of Rajya Sabha seats vacant+1) +1

For TamilNadu,

No. Of votes required= ((234*100)/6+1) +1

                                        =3344 (rounded)

This means, that to fill a seat of Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu, the corresponding MP should have the support of 34 MLAs in Tamil Nadu state.

As there are more parties in Tamil Nadu and each has its own amount of MLA, the Rajya Sabha seats are filled with the majority MLA count parties. Let’s see that with an example.

Let’s take there are four parties and each has its respective count of MLA,

Party A – 80

Party B- 60

Party C- 50

Party D- 44

Total= 234 assembly constituency representatives (MLA)

As each party has a minimum amount of MLA to quote for the Rajya seat, elections are held for those four parties (Candidates) for that particular seat. MLAs are given a ballot paper to give their preferred order for the respective candidates for that place.

As you can see in the above picture, that an MLA has selected his/her preference order in the ballot paper, for the candidates in that Rajya Sabha seat. Let’s say the total votes count for a particular candidate, by all the MLAs of different parties are,

Rajya Sabha seat 1(Preference 1)

Candidate A- 80000

Candidate B- 60000

Candidate C- 50000

Candidate D- 44000

Since all the candidates are eligible for this seat, the second round (second preference) is also taken into account. When counting the second preference, the candidate which has got the least votes will be removed and his vote will be distributed among all the others.

Rajya Sabha seat 1 (Preference 2)

Candidate A- 80000+10000=90000

Candidate B- 60000+30000=90000

Candidate C- 50000+4000=54000

According to the second preference, out of 44000 voters for Candidate D, 10000 had chosen Candidate A as their second preference, and 30000 for Candidate B and 4000 for Candidate C. Thus the votes of candidate D have been separated to other candidates. After calculating, both Candidate A and B are eligible for that particular seat. Hence for solving the problem, the third preference is taken into account, by following the same process, such that eliminating the least one and distributing his/her votes depending upon their third preference.

Rajya Sabha seat 1 (Preference 3)

Candidate A- 80000+10000+20000=110000

Candidate B-60000+30000+34000=124000

Thus by the last calculation, we can conclude that Candidate B gets the highest number of voter preferences to qualify for Rajya Sabha seat 1. To simplify the count, Candidate A was chosen by 110 MLAs, while Candidate B was chosen by 124 MLAs, through their second and third preference. This process continues for all the remaining seats. Thus, 6 MP’s are selected and sent to the Rajya Sabha from the Tamil Nadu side. Likewise, all other states send their MP’s, when there is a call for an election for them in Rajya Sabha.

The election process in Rajya Sabha