Class 9 Civics Chapter 3

Very Short Answer Questions

1. What is general election?

Answer: Election held after every five year is termed as general election.

2. Is the Election Commission of India an independent or an advisory body?

Answer: The Election Commission of India is an independent body.

3. Who is responsible for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India?

Answer: President of India appoints the Chief Election Commissioner of India.

4. What is the age of a person who can contest election for Lok Sabha in India?

Answer: The minimum age must be 25 years, who can contest for Lok Sabha in India.

5. On which day is the Voters’ Day celebrated?

Answer: Voters’ Day is celebrated on 25th January.

6. Who appoints Chief Electoral Officer?

Answer: Chief Election Commissioner in consultation with State Government appoints Chief Electoral
Officer.

7. What is official name of voters’ list?

Answer: Voters’ list is officially known as Electoral Roll.

8. How many seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the Lok Sabha?

Answer: Currently, in the Lok Sabha, 79 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes. (SCs)

9. What is Code of Conduct for election?

Answer: A set of norms and guidelines to be followed by political parties and contesting candidates
during election time is known as Code of Conduct.

10. What does the term rigging mean?

Answer: The term ‘rigging’ means fraud and malpractices indulged by a party or candidate to increase its
votes.

11. When does the by-election occur?

Answer: When any vacancy occurs due to death or resignation of a candidate, election becomes
necessary and it is known as by-election.

12. What is the number of Lok Sabha constituencies at present?

Answer: The number of Lok Sabha constituencies at present is 543.

13. What is ‘Defection?

Answer: Changing party allegiance from the party for which a person got elected to a different party is
called ‘Defection’.

14. What is two-party system?

Answer: Country where two major political parties dominate voting in all election is known as two-party
system.

15. What do you mean by voters?

Answer: People who have the right to vote or participate in the election of representatives are known as
voters.

16. What is mid-term election?

Answer: If the Lok Sabha or any State Legislative Assembly is dissolved before the expiry of its normal
term, the election held to constitute a new House is known as mid-term election.

17. What is election petition?

Answer: If any candidate or voter feels that election in his constituency has not been held properly or if
he has any objection against the result he can file an election petition in the court.

18. Which is the largest Legislative Assembly in India?

Answer: Uttar Pradesh is the largest Legislative Assembly in India.

19. What is the motive behind reserved constituencies?

Answer: The motive behind reserved constituencies is to ensure proper representation to the weaker
sections like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

20. Which party gave the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’?

Answer: The Congress Party led by Indira Gandhi gave the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ (Remove Poverty) in
the Lok Sabha election of 1971.

21. Who used the slogan of ‘Land to the Tiller’?

Answer: The Left Front used the slogan of ‘Land to the Tiller’ in the West Bengal elections held in 1977.

22. Which states have more than 30 Lok Sabha constituencies?

Answer: The states which have more than 30 Lok Sabha constituencies are Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil
Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.

23. Why do some states have a large number of constituencies?

Answer: Some states have a large number of constituencies because of their population, i.e., large
number of voters.

24. What is a Democratic Election?

Answer: Election should be conducted in a free and fair manner where people can choose as they really
wish and this type of election is known as Democratic Election.

25. What are By Elections?

Answer: When elections are held only for one constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or
resignation of a member. This is called By Elections.

26, What are Electoral Constituencies?

Answer: The country is divided into different areas for purposes of elections. These areas are called
electoral constituencies.

27. How many constituencies do we have for Lok Sabha?

Answer: For Lok Sabha elections the country is divided into 543 constituencies.

28. What is an elected representative from the constituency is called?

Answer: The representative elected from each constituency is called a member of parliament or an ME

29. What is an elected representative at the state level called as?

Answer: Each state is also divided into a specific number of Assembly constituencies. Here the elected
representative is called the Member of Legislative Assembly or an MLA.

30. How many seats are reserved for SC & ST in Lok Sabha?

Answer: Currently in the Lok Sabha 79 seats are reserved for the scheduled caste and 41 for the
scheduled tribe.

31. How many seats are reserved for women at local bodies?

Answer: One third of the total seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women candidates.

32. What is a party ticket?

Answer: Political parties nominate their candidates who get the party symbol and support. This party’s
nomination is often called the party ‘ticket’.

33. How does a person file nomination papers?

Answer: Every person who wishes to contest elections has to fill a ‘nomination form’ and give some
money as ‘security deposit’. This is how nomination papers are filed.

34. What are the legal declarations of a party candidate?

Answer: Details of assets and liabilities of the candidate and his or her family and Educational
qualifications of the candidate.

35. Why has personal information of a candidate to be made public?

Answer: This information needs to be made public as it provides an opportunity to the voters to make
their decisions on the basis of the information provided by the candidates.
36. What is the time period of campaigning for elections?

Answer: In one country such campaigns take place for a two-week period between the announcement
of the final list of candidates and the date of polling.

37. What is a ballot paper?

Answer: A ballot paper is a sheet of paper on which the names of the contesting candidates along with
party name and symbols are issued.

38. What is EVM?

Answer: EVMs are electronic voting machines, which are used to record votes.

39. How is a vote caste on EVM?

Answer: The machine shows the names of the candidates and the party symbols. All the voter has to do
is to press the button against the name of the candidate he or she wants to give vote.

40. What do you know about ‘Election Commission’?

Answer: In our country elections are conducted by an independent and very powerful election
commission. It enjoys the same kind of independence that the judiciary enjoys

41. What do you mean by ‘Turn out’.

Answer: Turnout indicates the percent of eligible voters who actually caste their vote.

42. Why do common people in India attach a lot of importance to elections?

Answer: They feel that through elections they can bring pressure on political parties to adopt policies
and programmes favourable to them.

43. Give any one challenge of Indian Elections.

Answer: Some families tend to dominate political parties; tickets are distributed to relatives from the
families.

44. Why do we have representative government in most democracies?

Answer: In most democracies, people rule through their representatives. Since it is not possible for
everyone to have time and knowledge to take decisions on all matters, representation is needed.

45. What is the mechanism of Elections behind choosing the representatives of a democratic country?

Answer: It is a mechanism by which people can choose their representatives at regular intervals and
change them if they wish to do so. This mechanism is called Elections.