Question

Expain any three sailent features of the electoral system in india?

Answer 1

Answer:

(i) India has been divided into single member territorial constituencies.There used to be double member constituencies initially but these are abolished. There are some reserved constituen­cies. They are also single member constituencies.

(ii) Constituencies are delimited with the help of a Delimitation Commission which is appointed after the census that takes place after every ten years. The result of the revision of constituen­cies is that the areas change from election to election. For example, some part of West Delhi became part of South Delhi Constituency in 1980 election.

(iii) There was a practice that the election for the Parliament and State Assemblies were held simultaneously. There used to be one general election. However, in 1971, elections to the Parlia­ment were delinked from elections to the State Assemblies. The change had tremendous effect.

This has changed the voting behaviour of the people. Earlier the voting behaviour used to be the same at the Centre and the State. It is not necessary for the people to have the same voting behaviour in the State Assembly election as it was at the time of general election of Parliament.