electoral politics
DESCRIPTION
ELECTORAL POLITICS IN INDIATRANSCRIPT
ELECTORAL POLITICS
MADE BYNIHARIKA S PANDE
Class 9th-A
CONTENTS• Elections• Why elections• What makes election democratic?• Is it good to have political competition?• What is our system of election?• What makes election democratic in
India?• conclusion
ELECTIONS• Election, procedure that allows members of an
organization or community to choose representatives who will hold positions of authority within it.
• The most important elections select the leaders of local, state, and national governments.
• The chance to decide who will govern at these levels serves as an opportunity for the public to make choices about the policies, programs, and future directions of government action.
• At the same time, elections promote accountability.
• The threat of defeat at the polls exerts pressure on those in power to conduct themselves in a responsible manner and take account of popular interests and wishes when they make their decisions.
WHY ELECTIONS?•Elections take place regularly in any democracy. We know that
there are more than 100 countries in the world in which elections take
place to chose people’s representatives.
•But why do we need elections?• A rule of people is possible without any elections if all the people can sit together
everyday and take all the decisions. •But we already know that it is not possible in an
large community. •Nor it is possible for everyone to have the time and knowledge to take decisions on all matters. •Therefore in most democracies people rule
through their representatives.
CONTD…• In an election the voters
make many choices:• They can choose who will
make laws for them.• They can choose who will
form the government and take major decisions.
• They can choose the party whose policies will guide the government and law making.
WHAT MAKES ELECTION
DEMOCRATIC? Conditions of a democratic elections:
First, everyone should be able to choose. This means that everyone should have one vote and every vote and every vote should have equal value.
Second, there should be something to choose from. Parties and candidates should be free to
contest elections and should offer some real choice to the voters.
Third, the choice should be offered at regular intervals. Election must be
held regularly after every few years.Fourth, the candidate preferred by
the people should get elected.Fifth, elections should be conducted
in a free and fair manner where people can choose as they really
wish.
IS IT GOOD TO HAVE POLITICAL COMPETITION?
Elections are thus all about political competition. This takes competition takes
various forms. The most obvious form is the competition among political parties. At the
constituency level, it takes the form of competition among several candidates. If
there is no competition, elections will become pointless.
But is it good to have political competition?
Clearly, an electoral competition has many demerits. It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’ in
every locality. Different political parties and leaders often level allegations against one another. Parties
and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections. Some people say that this pressure to win electoral fights dose not allow sensible long-term policies to be formulated. Some good people who may wish to serve the country do not enter this arena. They do
not like the idea being dragged into healthy competition.
WHAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS?
Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha (Assembly) elections are held after every five years. After five years the
term of all elected representatives comes to an end. The Lok sabha or vidhan sabha stands
‘dissolved’. Elections are held in all constituencies at the same time either on the same day or within
a few days. This is called a general election.Sometimes elections is held only for one
constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member. This is called a by-
election
ELECTORAL CONSTITUENCIES
In our country we follow an area based system of representation. The country
is divided into different areas for purposes of elections. These areas are
called electoral constituencies. The voters who live in an area elect one
representative.
For Lok Sabha elections, the country is divided into 543 constituencies. The
representative elected from each constituency is called a Member of
parliament or an MP. One of the features of democratic election
is that every vote should have equal value. That is why our constitution
requires that each constituency should have a roughly equal population living
within it.
CONTD…Similarly, each state is divided into specific
number of Assembly constituencies. In this case, the elected representative is called the member
of Legislative Assembly or an MLA. Each parliamentary constituency has within it several
assembly constituencies. The same principle applies for Panchayat and Municipal elections.
Each village or town is divided into several ewardsi that are like constincutencies. Each
ward elects one member of the village or the urban local body.
CONTD…Sometimes these constituencies are
counted as sates for each constituency represents one seat in
the assembly. When we say that elok dal won 60 seats in Haryana, it means that candidates of Lok Dal won in 60 assembly constituencies in the state and thus Lok Dal had 60 MLAs in the state assembly.
RESERVED CONSTITUENCIES
• The makers of our constitution thought of a special
system of reserved constituencies are reserved for the weaker sections. Some constituencies are reserved for people who belong to the Scheduled castes [SC] and
Scheduled Tribes [ST].• In a SC reserved constituency only someone who belongs to the Scheduled Castes can stand for election.
• Similarly only those belonging to the Scheduled Tribes can contest an election from a constituency reserved for ST. Currently, in the Lok Sabha 79 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 41 for the Scheduled Tribes.
VOTERS LIST
• In a democratic election the list of those who are eligible to vote is prepared much before
the election and given to everyone.• This list is officially called the Electoral Roll
and is commonly known as the Voters List. • This is an important step for it is linked to
the first condition of a democratic election: everyone should get an equal opportunity to
choose representatives.
CONTD…• Universal adult
franchise: In this practice it means that everyone should have one vote and each vote should have equal value.
LOK SABHA CONSTITUENCIESTotal constituencies = 543General = 423Reserved (SC) =79Reserved (ST)=41
STATES CONSTITUENCIESAndhra Pradesh 42 Arunachal Pradesh 2Assam 14 Bihar 40 Chhattisgarh 11 Goa 2Gujarat 26 Haryana 10Himachal Pradesh 4 Jammu and Kashmir 6 Jharkhand 14Karnataka 26 Kerala 20 Madhya Pradesh 29 Maharashtra 48Manipur 2Meghalaya 2Mizoram 1 UNION TERRITORIESNagaland 1 Orissa 21 Andaman & Nicobar 1Punjab 13 Chandigarh 1 Rajasthan 25 Dadra &Nagar Haveli Sikkim 1 Daman &Diu 1Tamil Nadu 39 Delhi 7Tripura 2 Lakshadweep 1Uttar Pradesh 80 Pondicherry 1Uttaranchal 5 West Bengal 42
ELECTION CAMPAING• The main purpose of election is to give
people a chance to choose the representatives, the government and the policies they prefer. Therefore it is necessary to have a free and open discussion about who is a better representative, which party will make a better government or what is a good policy. This is what happens during election campaigns.
• In our country such campaigns take place for a two week period between the announcement of the final list of candidates and the date of polling. During this period the candidates contact their voters, political leaders address election meetings and political parties mobilize their supporters.
• According to our election law, no party or candidates can:
• Bribe or threaten voters.• Appeal to them in the name of casts or religion.• Use government resources for election campaign
spend more than rupees 20 lakh in a constituency in an assembly election.
• Use any place of worship for election propaganda.• Use government vehicles, aircrafts and officials for
election• Once elections are announced, ministers shall not lay
foundation stones of any projects, take any big policy decisions or make any promises of providing public
facilities.
Why do you bother? You can go, I got
your vote cast!!
• POLLING AND COUNTING OF VOTES• The final stage of an election is the day when the voters
cast or ‘poll’ their vote. That day is usually called the election day.CANDIDATE PARTY VOTESPS POLLED %OF VOTES
Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi INC 312432 37.76
Basawaraj Patil Sedum BJP 254548 30.82
Vithal Heroor JD (S) 189001 22.84
Suryakant Nimbalkar BSP 26723 3.23
Sanganna IND 15212 1.84
Arun Kumar Chandrashekara Patil
KNDP 7155 0.86
Bhagavanreddy B IND 6748 0.52
Hamid Pasha Sarmast MUL 3900 0.47
Baswawant rao Revansiddappa Sheelwanth
AIFB 3671 0.44
Sandesh C Bandak USYP 3380 0.41
WHAT MAKES ELECTIONS IN INDIA DEMOCRATIC?
• We get to read a lot about unfair practices in elections like:
• Inclusion of false names and exclusion genuine names in the voters list;
• Misuse of government facilities and officials by the ruling party:
• Excessive use of money by rich candidates and big parties; and
• Intimidation of voters and rigging on the polling day.
INDEPENDENT ELECTION COMMISION
• Very few election commissions in the world have such wide-ranging powers as the election
commission of India.• EC takes decisions on every aspect of conduct
and control of elections from the announcement of elections to the declaration of results.
• It implements the code of conduct and punishes any candidate or party that violates it.
• During the election period, the EC can order the government to follow some
guidelines, to prevent use and enhance its chances its chances to win election,
or to transfer some government officials.• When on election, or to transfer some
government officers work under the control of the EC and not the
government.
1991 20050
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160 Column1INDIAUK
Upper cast
sOBC SC ST
White
Black
Hispan
ic0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
INDIA US
Column1
Do you think vote makes dif-ference?
Has effectHas no effectDon’t know
1996 1998 1999 20040
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Those who participate in any elec-tion related activity in India.
election yearSocial groups
THE OUTCOMES OF INDIA’S ELECTIONS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF: • The ruling parties routinely lose elections in India both at
the national and state level. In fact in every two out of the three elections held in the last fifteen years, the ruling
party lost.• In the US, an incumbent or ‘sitting’ elected representative
rarely loses an election. In India about half of the sitting MPs lose election.
• Barring very few disputed elections, the electoral outcomes are usually accepted as ‘people’s verdict’ by the
defeated party.
What was need to say that we have
distributed tickets only amongst suitable and
winnable family relations?
CHALLENGES TO FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS.
• All this lead to a simple conclusion: elections in India are basically free and fair. The party that wins an election and forms government dose so because
people have chosen it over its rivals.• can an ordinary citizen hope to win election?
Questions of this kind bring the many limitations and challenges of Indian elections to our attention. These
include: • Candidates and parties with lot of money may not be
sure of their victory but they do enjoy a big and unfair advantage over smaller parties and independents.
CONTD…• In some parts of the country, candidates with
criminal connection have been able to push others out of the electoral race and to secure a tickets from major parties.
• Some families tend to dominate political parties; tickets are distributed to relatives from these families.
• Very often elections offer little choice to ordinary citizens, for both the major parties are quite similar to each other both in policies and practice.
• Smaller parties and independent candidates suffer a huge disadvantage compared to bigger parties.
CONCLUSION..
These challenges exist not just in India but also in many established democracies. These deeper issues area matter of concern for those who believe in democracy. That is why citizens , social activists and organiza-
tions have been demanding reforms in our electoral system.
Thank-you