Electoral Politics by Kanishka

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE
Chapter: 3
Electoral Politics
By: Kanishka Sharma
Class: IX-C
Roll no: 19
WHY ELECTIONS?
Assembly Elections in Haryana:
Haryana had been ruled by a Congress party led government since 1982. Chaudhary
Devi Lal, then an opposition leader, led a movement called ‘Nyaya Yudh’ (Struggle
for Justice) and formed a new party, Lok Dal. His party joined other opposition
parties to form a front against the Congress in the elections. In the election
campaign, Devi Lal said that if his party won the elections, his government would
waive the loans of farmers and small businessmen. He promised that this would be
the first action of his government.
The people were unhappy with the existing government. They were also attracted by
Devi Lal’s promise. So, when elections were held, they voted overwhelmingly in
favour of Lok Dal and its allies. Lok Dal and its partners won 76 out of 90 seats in
the State Assembly. Lok Dal alone won 60 seats and thus had a clear majority in the
Assembly. The Congress could win only 5 seats.
Once the election results were announced, the sitting Chief Minister resigned. The
newly elected Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Lok Dal chose Devi Lal
as their leader. The Governor invited Devi Lal to be the new Chief Minister. Three
days after the election results were declared, he became the Chief Minister. As soon
as he became the Chief Minister, his Government issued a Government Order waiving
the outstanding loans of small farmers, agricultural labourers and small
businessmen. His party ruled the State for four years. The next elections were held
in 1991. But this time his party did not win popular support. The Congress won the
election and formed the government.
Why do we need elections ?
Elections take place regularly in any democracy. There are more than one hundred
countries in the world in which elections take place to choose people’s
representatives. We also read that elections are held in many countries that are not
democratic.
In a democracy without elections. A rule of the people is possible without any

elections if all the people can sit together everyday and take all the decisions. But
this is not possible in any large community. Nor is it possible for everyone to have
the time and knowledge to take decisions on all matters. Therefore in most
democracies people rule through their representatives.
Therefore, elections are considered essential in our times for any representative
democracy.
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:
Elections can be held in many ways. All democratic countries hold elections. But
most non-democratic countries also hold some kind of elections.
A simple list of the minimum conditions of a democratic election:

● First, everyone should be able to choose. This means that everyone should have
one 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. Elections 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 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.
an electoral competition has many demerits. It creates a sense of disunity and

‘factionalism’ in every locality. You would have heard of people complaining of
‘party-politics’ in your 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 does 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 of
being dragged into unhealthy competition
Our Constitution makers were aware of these problems. Yet they opted for free
competition in elections as the way to select our future leaders. They did so
because this system works better in the long run. In an ideal world all political
leaders know what is good for the people and are motivated only by a desire to
serve them.
Political competition is not necessary in such an ideal world. But that is not what
happens in real life. Political leaders all over the world, like all other
professionals, are motivated by a desire to advance their political careers. They
want to remain in power or get power and positions for themselves.They may wish
to serve the people as well, but it is risky to depend entirely on their sense of duty.
Besides even when they wish to serve the people, they may not know what is
required to do so, or their ideas may not match what the people really want.
To deal with this situation, is to try and improve the knowledge and character of
political leaders. The other and more realistic way is to set up a system where
political leaders are rewarded for serving the people and punished for not doing so.
Who decides this reward or punishment? The simple answer is: the people. This is
what electoral competition does. Regular electoral competition provides incentives to
political parties and leaders. They know that if they raise issues that people want to
be raised, their popularity and chances of victory will increase in the next elections.
But if they fail to satisfy the voters with their work they will not be able to win again.
So if a political party is motivated only by desire to be in power, even then it will be

forced to serve the people. This is a bit like the way market works. Even if a
shopkeeper is interested only in his profit, he is forced to give good service to the
customers. If he does not, the customer will go to some other shop. Similarly, political
competition may cause divisions and some ugliness, but it finally helps to force
political parties and leaders to serve the people.
WHAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF
ELECTIONS?
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 a 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. Similarly, 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.
When we say that ‘Lok 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:
Our Constitution entitles every citizen to elect her/his representative and to be elected as a representative.
The Constitution makers, however, were worried that in an open electoral competition, certain weaker
sections may not stand a good chance to get elected to the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative
Assemblies. They may not have the required resources, education and contacts to contest and win
elections against others. Those who are influential and resourceful may prevent them from winning
elections. If that happens, our Parliament and Assemblies would be deprived of the voice of a significant
section of our population. That would make our democracy less representative and less democratic.
So, the makers of our Constitution thought of a special system of reserved constituencies 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, 84 seats are reserved for the Scheduled
Castes and 47 for the Scheduled Tribes (as on 26 January 2019). This number is in proportion to their
share in the total population. Thus the reserved seats for SC and ST do not take away the legitimate share
of any other social group.
This system of reservation was extended later to other weaker sections at the district
and local level. In many states, seats in rural (panchayat) and urban (municipalities
and corporations) local bodies are now reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC)
as well. However, the proportion of seats reserved varies from state to state.
Similarly, one-third of the seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for
women candidates.
Voters’ list:
Once the constituencies are decided, the next step is to decide who can and who
cannot vote. This decision cannot be left to anyone till the last day. 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.

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE

In a democracy without elections. A rule of the people is possible without any

A simple list of the minimum conditions of a democratic election:

an electoral competition has many demerits. It creates a sense of disunity and

So if a political party is motivated only by desire to be in power, even then it will be

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