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Electoral Politics - Notes

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27 views2 pages

Electoral Politics - Notes

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hariprasad j
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Grade -IX Social Science

Electoral Politics

Why Do We Need Elections?


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 an Election Democratic?


Minimum conditions of a democratic election include the following points.

1. Everyone should be able to choose their own representative.


2. Parties and candidates should be free to contest elections and should offer some real choice
to the voters.
3. Elections must be held regularly after every few years.
4. The candidate preferred by the people should get elected.
5. 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?


1. Regular electoral competition provides incentives to political parties and leaders.
2. Political parties know that if they raise issues that people want to be raised, their popularity
and chances of victory will increase in the next elections. On the contrary, if they fail to
satisfy the voters with their work, they will not be able to win again
3. If a political party is motivated only by the desire to be in power, despite that, it will be forced
to serve the people.

What is Our System of Election?


Elections held in all constituencies at the same time, either on the same day or within a few days is
called a General Election. Sometimes elections are held only for one constituency to fill the
vacancy caused by the death or resignation of a member. This is called a By-Election.
Electoral Constituency
India is divided into different areas for the purpose of elections. These areas are called electoral
constituencies. The voters living in an area elect one representative.

 For Lok Sabha elections, India is divided into 543 constituencies. The representative elected
from each constituency is called a Member of Parliament or an MP.
 Each state is divided into a 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 ‘wards’ that are like constituencies. Each ward elects one member of the village or the
urban local body. Sometimes these constituencies are counted as ‘seats’, for each constituency
represents one seat in the assembly.

Reserved Constituencies
Some constituencies are reserved for people who belong to the Scheduled Castes [SC] and
Scheduled Tribes [ST]. In the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for the SC and 47 for the ST.
In many states, seats in rural (panchayat) and urban (municipalities and corporations) local bodies
are now reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and women candidates as well.

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, which is officially called the Electoral Roll and is commonly known
as the Voters’ List. It is the responsibility of the government to get the names of all the eligible
voters put on the voters’ list.

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