Elections in India

India has a parliamentary system as defined by its constitution, with power distributed between the union government and the states. India's democracy is the largest democracy in the world.
The President of India is the ceremonial head of state of the country and supreme commander-in-chief for all defense forces in India. However, it is the Prime Minister of India, who is the leader of the party or political alliance having a majority in the national elections to the Lok Sabha (Lower house of the Parliament). The Prime Minister is the leader of the legislative branch of the Government of India. The Prime Minister is the chief adviser to the President of India and the head of the Union Council of Ministers.
India is regionally divided into States (and Union Territories) and each State has a Governor who is the state's head, but the executive authority rests with the Chief Minister, who is the leader of the party or political alliance that has won a majority in the regional elections, otherwise known as State Assembly Elections that exercises executive powers in that State. The respective State's Chief Minister has executive powers within the State and works jointly with the Prime Minister of India or their ministers on matters that require both State and Central attention. Some Union Territories also elect an Assembly and have a territorial government, and other (mainly smaller) Union Territories are governed by an administrator/lieutenant governor appointed by the President of India.
The President of India monitors the rule of law through their appointed governors in each State and on their recommendation, can take over the executive powers from the Chief Minister of the State temporarily when the elected representatives of the State government have failed to create a peaceful environment and it has deteriorated into chaos. The President of India dissolves the existing State government if necessary, and a new election is conducted.
The Republic of India has instituted universal suffrage since independence from the British Raj, with the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1949.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is an autonomous authority of India that is enacted under the provisions of the Constitution, responsible for monitoring and administering Union and State election processes in India. This body is responsible for ensuring elections are free and fair, without any bias.It derived its powers from A 324 of the constitution
The ECI, established as a permanent Constitutional Body, is entrusted by the Constitution with the superintendence, direction, and control of the entire electoral process for Parliament, State Legislatures, and the offices of the President and Vice President of India.
Elections ensure the conduct of members pre-elections, during elections, and post-elections is as per the statutory legislation.
All election-related disputes are handled by the Election Commission. The Supreme Court of India has held that where the enacted laws are silent or make insufficient provisions to deal with a given situation in the conduct of elections, the Election Commission has the residuary powers under the Constitution to act as appropriate. The first chief election Commissioner was Sukumar Sen.
The elections for the President and Vice President of India, the Rajya Sabha (council of states) and Lok Sabha (house of the people), State Legislative Assemblies (including Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Puducherry), and State Legislative Councils are conducted by the Election Commission of India.
The State Election Commission (SEC) is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering elections to the 3rd tier of governance, i.e., the Local Government, which includes the Panchayati Raj Institutions and the Urban Local Bodies. As per the constitutional provision, superintendence, direction, and control of the conduct of Elections to Urban & Rural Local bodies vest in State Election Commission.
State Election Commission consists of a State Election Commissioner, who is appointed by the Governor for a fixed tenure of 5 years and cannot be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of a High Court.
The elections to local self-government institutions, such as panchayats and municipalities, are conducted by the respective State Election Commissions (SECs).
Elections in the Republic of India include elections for
Members of Lok Sabha (House of the People), or the lower house of India's Parliament, are elected by being voted upon by all adult citizens of India (who crossed 18 years of age) from a set of candidates who contest in their respective constituencies. Every adult citizen of India can vote only in their constituency. Candidates who win the Lok Sabha elections are called 'Members of Parliament' and hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the President on the advice of the council of ministers. The house meets in the Lok Sabha Chambers of the Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi, on matters relating to the creation of new laws and removing or improving the existing laws that affect all citizens of India. Elections take place once in 5 years to elect 543 members for the Lok Sabha (Lower house).
Members of the State Legislative Assembly are elected directly by voting from a set of candidates who contest in their respective constituencies. Every adult citizen of India can vote only in their constituency. Candidates who win the State Legislative Assemblies elections are called 'Members of Legislative Assembly' (MLA) and hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the Governor. The house meets in the respective state, on matters relating to the creation of new laws, removing, or improving the existing laws that affect all citizens living in that state.
The total strength of each assembly depends on each State, mostly based on size and population. Similar to the Lok Sabha elections, the leader of the majority party/alliance takes an oath as Chief Minister of the State.
The Election Commission conducts the elections and provides a voluntary facility to 80-plus-year-old electors to vote through ballot papers at their homes depending upon polling booth accessibility. Elections are taken up enthusiastically by a major portion of the population, who turn out in high numbers. For example, An 83-year-old woman, Dolma, cast her vote at the Chasak Bhatori polling station in the Pangi area of the Chamba district after covering 14 kilometers walking on a snowy road during the 2022 assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.
Prior to the much awaited Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the state assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana are an important political event. November 7 and November 17 are the scheduled dates for Chhattisgarh's elections, while Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana will hold their votes on November 17, November 23, and November 30, respectively. The political climate before the national elections is anticipated to be shaped by the outcomes of these elections, which are anticipated to be declared on December 3. Key political players in these states are diverse and competing for domination, such as the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and other regional parties. These states differ in the quantity of assembly seats they have; Chhattisgarh has ninety seats.
When an elected candidate to either the State Assembly, Lok Sabha, or Rajya Sabha leaves the office vacant before their term ends, a by-election is conducted to find a suitable replacement to fill the vacant position. It is often referred to in India as bypolls.
Common reasons for by-elections:
But other reasons occur when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (criminal conviction, failure to maintain a minimum level of attendance in the office, due to election irregularities found later, or when a candidate wins more than one seat and has to vacate one).
The Rajya Sabha, also known as the Council of States, is the upper house of India's Parliament. Candidates are not elected directly by the citizens but by the members of legislative assemblies and up to 13 can be nominated by the President of India for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social services. Members of the Parliament in Rajya Sabha get a tenure of six years, with one-third of the body facing re-election every two years. Rajya Sabha acts as a second-level review body before a bill becomes an act.
The Vice President of India is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, who presides over its sessions.
The legislative proposals (making new laws, removing, or appending new conditions to the existing law) are brought before either house of the Parliament in the form of a bill. A bill is the draft of a legislative proposal, which, when passed by both houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and assented to by the President, becomes an Act of Parliament.
The Constitution of India, however, places some restrictions on the Rajya Sabha, which makes the Lok Sabha more powerful in certain areas. For example, it stipulates that money bills must originate in the Lok Sabha.
Members of Rajya Sabha debate bills sent by the Lok Sabha and can approve, reject, or send the bill back to the Lok Sabha for further debate and discussion on the matter, as well as to suggest better changes in the drafted bill. Members of the Rajya Sabha can only make recommendations to the Lok Sabha for money bills within 14 days. If the Rajya Sabha fails to return the money bill in 14 days to the Lok Sabha, that bill is deemed to have passed by both the houses. Also, if the Lok Sabha rejects any (or all) of the amendments proposed by the Rajya Sabha, the bill is deemed to have been passed by both Houses of Parliament of India in the form in which the Lok Sabha finally passes it.
Candidates are required to file their nomination papers with the Electoral Commission. Then, a list of candidates is published. No party is allowed to use government resources for campaigning. No party is allowed to bribe the candidates before elections. The government cannot start a project during the election period. Campaigning ends by 6:00 pm two days before the polling day.
The polling is held between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm. The Collector of each district is in charge of polling. Government employees are employed as poll officers at the polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used instead of ballot boxes to prevent election fraud. After the citizen votes, his or her left index finger is marked with indelible ink. This practice was instituted in 1962.
The Election Commission of India has granted permission for individuals aged 80 and above and those with physical challenges to cast their votes from the comfort of their homes using ballot papers. To avail of this facility, eligible individuals must register with the designated booth-level officer at least 10 days prior to the election date. The necessary Form 12-D for facilitating the postal ballot has to be submitted well in advance. A dedicated team of five officers, including a polling officer, micro observer, police officer, and photographer, will visit their residences to ensure a smooth and transparent polling process. The entire polling procedure will be documented through photographs and videos. While the option to vote from home is voluntary, the decision cannot be reversed later once an elector chooses this method. Election officials in Bhopal, India, are actively reaching out to the residences of super senior citizens (aged above 80 years) and voters with disabilities to provide assistance in submitting their votes through postal ballots for 2023 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections.
In the 2024 lok sabha elections, ECI extended the "vote-from-home" option to people aged 85 years and above and to Persons with Disabilities (PwD) for the first time in the history of the Lok Sabha elections. The goal of this move is to improve participation and accessibility in the electoral process.
Research into indelible ink was commenced by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In the 1950s, M. L. Goel worked on this research at the Chemical Division of the National Physical Laboratory of India. The ink used contains silver nitrate, which makes it photo-sensitive. It is stored in amber-colored plastic or brown-colored glass bottles. On application, the ink remains on the fingernail for at least two days. It may last up to a month, depending on the person's body temperature and the environment.
BHAVIK (EVM) were first used in the 1997 election and became the only method of voting in 2004. The EVMs save time in reporting results. A voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) was introduced on 14 August 2014 in Nagaland. In the 2014 general election, VVPAT was operational in 8 constituencies (Lucknow, Gandhinagar, Bangalore South, Chennai Central, Jadavpur, Raipur, Patna Sahib and Mizoram) as a pilot project. A slip generated by the VVPAT tells a voter to which party or candidate their vote has been given, their name, their constituency and their polling booth.
Opposition parties demanded that VVPAT be made mandatory all over India due to allegations against the government of hacking the EVM. Accordingly, Voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs) and EVMs were used in every assembly and the general election in India since 2019. On 9 April 2019, Supreme Court of India gave the judgement, ordering the Election Commission of India to increase the VVPAT slips vote count to five randomly selected EVMs per assembly constituency, which means the Election Commission of India has to count VVPAT slips of 20,625 EVMs in the 2019 General elections. VVPAT enables voters to cross-check whether the vote they have given goes to their desired candidate, as the VVPAT unit produces a paper slip, additionally called a ballot slip, that contains the name, serial number, and image of the candidate selected by the voter for his vote. Post the 2019 general election, ECI declared that there were no mismatches between EVM and VVPAT.
On 27 September 2013, the Supreme Court of India judged that citizens have the right to cast a negative vote by exercising the "None of the above" (NOTA) option. This was the result of petitioning by the Electoral Commission and the People's Union for Civil Liberties in 2009. In November 2013, NOTA was introduced in five state elections. Even if the number of electors opting for the NOTA option is more than the number of votes polled by any of the candidates, the candidate who secures the largest number of votes has to be declared elected.
India does not provide general absentee voting. On 24 November 2010, the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2010 was gazetted to give voting rights to non-resident Indians but a physical presence at the voting booth is still required.
Postal voting in India is done only through the "Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot Papers (ETPB)" system of the Election Commission of India, where ballot papers are distributed to the registered eligible voters, and they return the votes by post. When the counting of votes commences, these postal votes are counted before those from the Electronic Voting Machines. Only certain categories of people are eligible to register as postal voters. People working in the Union armed forces and state police, as well as their spouses and employees working for the Government of India who are officially posted abroad, can register for the postal vote; these are also called the "Service voters". Additionally, people in preventive detention, disabled, and those above the age of 80 years old can use postal votes. Prisoners cannot vote at all.