Electoral system of India

Election Commission of India

Election Commission of India, a constitutional body independent from the government, has the right to conduct elections for the office of the president and the vice president and members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state legislative assemblies, state legislative councils and legislative assemblies of the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry.

State Election Commissions

Each state in India and four union territories (Chandigarh, Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir) have an autonomous constitutional body independent from ECI^[2] responsible for conducting elections to urban local bodies such as municipal corporations and municipalities, and panchayat institutions such as village panchayats, block panchayats, and district councils within the respective state/UT. It is also responsible for the implementation of a model code of conduct during the election process, and updation of electoral rolls for all elections conducted by it.^[3] State Election Commissions were created for implementation of Panchayati Raj system introduced by 73rd constitutional amendment.

Election Commission for UTs

For all Union Territories without a separate body for conduct of local elections, i.e. the union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Election Commission for UTs acts as a singular body to conduct elections to autonomous hill councils, municipal corporations,municipalities, village panchayats, block panchayats, and district councils within all of these 4 Union Territories.

Criteria for recognition

List of recognized political parties

National parties

More information Party, Abbr. ...

Recognised national parties^[7]

Party		Abbr.	Flag	Election symbol	Political position	Ideology	Founded	Leader	Government in states/UTs		Number of seats
									Chief ministers	Ruling coalition[a]	Lok Sabha	Rajya Sabha[b]	State assemblies[c]	State councils
Aam Aadmi Party	AAP			Centre[8][9]	Welfarism[10] Indian nationalism[11][12][13] Populism[14][15][16] Secularism[17]	26 November 2012 (13 years ago) (2012-11-26)	Arvind Kejriwal	1 / 31	0 / 31	3 / 543	3 / 245	121 / 4,123	0 / 426
Bahujan Samaj Party	BSP			Centre-left[18]	Social justice[19] Self-respect[19] Ambedkarism[19]	14 April 1984 (42 years ago) (1984-04-14)	Mayawati	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	1 / 245	4 / 4,123	0 / 426
Bharatiya Janata Party	BJP			Right-wing[d] to far-right[e]	Conservatism[f] Neoliberalism[g] Hindutva[38][39][40] Right-wing populism[41][42]	6 April 1980 (46 years ago) (1980-04-06)	Nitin Nabin	16 / 31	5 / 31	240 / 543	113 / 245	1,656 / 4,123	165 / 426
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPI(M)			Left-wing[h]	Marxism–Leninism[50][51][52] Socialism[50][53][54][55] Secularism[51]	7 November 1964 (61 years ago) (1964-11-07)	M. A. Baby	1 / 31	0 / 31	4 / 543	3 / 245	79 / 4,123	0 / 426
Indian National Congress	INC			Centre[59]	Big tent[56][60] Liberalism[61][62][63] Social democracy[56][64] Secularism[65] Civic nationalism[65]	28 December 1885 (140 years ago) (1885-12-28)	Mallikarjun Kharge	3 / 31	1 / 31	100 / 543	29 / 245	632 / 4,123	60 / 426
National People's Party	NPP			Centre-right[66]	Conservatism[67] Regionalism[68][69]	6 January 2013 (13 years ago) (2013-01-06)	Conrad Sangma	1 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	1 / 245	50 / 4,123	0 / 426

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State parties

More information Party, Flag ...

Recognised state parties^[70][i]

Party		Flag	Election symbol	Founded	Leader(s)	Recognised in state(s)/UT(s)	Government in states/UTs		Seats
							Chief minister	Ruling coalition[a]	Lok Sabha	Rajya Sabha	State assemblies	State councils
State party in three states
All India Trinamool Congress			1998	Mamata Banerjee	Meghalaya Tripura West Bengal	1 / 31	0 / 31	29 / 543	13 / 245	230 / 4,123	0 / 426
Communist Party of India			1925	D. Raja	Kerala Manipur Tamil Nadu	0 / 31	1 / 31	2 / 543	2 / 245	22 / 4,123	1 / 426
Janata Dal (Secular)			1999	H. D. Deve Gowda H. D. Kumaraswamy	Arunachal Pradesh Karnataka Kerala	0 / 31	0 / 31	2 / 543	1 / 245	18 / 4,123	8 / 426
Janata Dal (United)			2003	Nitish Kumar	Arunachal Pradesh Bihar Manipur	1 / 31	0 / 31	12 / 543	4 / 245	87 / 4,123	26 / 426
State party in two states
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam			1972	Edappadi K. Palaniswami	Puducherry Tamil Nadu	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	4 / 245	61 / 4,123	0 / 426
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam			1949	M. K. Stalin	Puducherry Tamil Nadu	1 / 31	0 / 31	22 / 543	10 / 245	137 / 4,123	0 / 426
Naga People's Front			1963	Neiphiu Rio	Manipur Nagaland	1 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	39 / 4,123	0 / 426
Nationalist Congress Party			1999	Sunetra Pawar	Maharashtra Nagaland	0 / 31	1 / 31	1 / 543	3 / 245	44 / 4,123	8 / 426
Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar			2024	Sharad Pawar	Maharashtra Nagaland	0 / 31	0 / 31	8 / 543	2 / 245	12 / 4,123	3 / 426
Rashtriya Janata Dal			1997	Lalu Prasad Yadav Tejashwi Yadav	Bihar Jharkhand	0 / 31	1 / 31	4 / 543	5 / 245	81 / 4,123	5 / 426
Telugu Desam Party			1982	N. Chandrababu Naidu	Andhra Pradesh Telangana	1 / 31	0 / 31	16 / 543	2 / 245	135 / 4,123	10 / 426
YSR Congress Party			2011	Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy	Andhra Pradesh Telangana	0 / 31	0 / 31	4 / 543	7 / 245	11 / 4,123	35 / 426
State party in one state
All India Forward Bloc			1939	Debabrata Biswas	West Bengal	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen			1927	Asaduddin Owaisi	Telangana	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	10 / 4,123	2 / 426
All India N.R. Congress			2011	N. Rangaswamy	Puducherry	1 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	10 / 4,123	0 / 426
All India United Democratic Front			2005	Badruddin Ajmal	Assam	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	15 / 4,123	0 / 426
All Jharkhand Students Union			1986	Sudesh Mahto	Jharkhand	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	1 / 4,123	0 / 426
Apna Dal (Soneylal)			2016	Anupriya Patel	Uttar Pradesh	0 / 31	1 / 31	2 / 543	0 / 245	12 / 4,123	1 / 426
Asom Gana Parishad			1985	Atul Bora	Assam	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	1 / 245	9 / 4,123	0 / 426
Bharat Rashtra Samithi			2001	K. Chandrashekar Rao	Telangana	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	4 / 245	39 / 4,123	19 / 426
Biju Janata Dal			1997	Naveen Patnaik	Odisha	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	7 / 245	51 / 4,123	0 / 426
Bodoland People's Front			2005	Hagrama Mohilary	Assam	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	3 / 4,123	0 / 426
Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation			1974	Dipankar Bhattacharya	Bihar	0 / 31	0 / 31	2 / 543	0 / 245	13 / 4,123	1 / 426
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam			2005	Premallatha Vijayakant	Tamil Nadu	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Goa Forward Party			2016	Vijai Sardesai	Goa	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	1 / 4,123	0 / 426
Hill State People's Democratic Party			1968	KP Pangniang	Meghalaya	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	2 / 4,123	0 / 426
Indian National Lok Dal			1996	Abhay Singh Chautala	Haryana	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	2 / 4,123	0 / 426
Indian Union Muslim League			1948	Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal	Kerala	0 / 31	0 / 31	3 / 543	2 / 245	15 / 4,123	0 / 426
Indigenous People's Front of Tripura			2009	Prem Kumar Reang	Tripura	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	1 / 4,123	0 / 426
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference			1932	Farooq Abdullah Omar Abdullah	Jammu and Kashmir	1 / 31	0 / 31	2 / 543	3 / 245	42 / 4,123	0 / 426
Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party			1982	Harsh Dev Singh	Jammu and Kashmir	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party			1999	Mehbooba Mufti	Jammu and Kashmir	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	3 / 4,123	0 / 426
Janasena Party			2014	Pawan Kalyan	Andhra Pradesh	0 / 31	0 / 31	2 / 543	0 / 245	21 / 4,123	2 / 426
Jannayak Janta Party			2018	Dushyant Chautala	Haryana	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Janta Congress Chhattisgarh			2016	Renu Jogi	Chhattisgarh	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha			1972	Hemant Soren	Jharkhand	1 / 31	0 / 31	3 / 543	2 / 245	34 / 4,123	0 / 426
Kerala Congress			1964	P. J. Joseph	Kerala	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Kerala Congress (M)			1979	Jose K. Mani	Kerala	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	1 / 245	5 / 4,123	0 / 426
Lok Janshakti Party			2000		Bihar	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)			2021	Chirag Paswan	Nagaland	0 / 31	1 / 31	5 / 543	0 / 245	3 / 4,123	0 / 426
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena			2006	Raj Thackeray	Maharashtra	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party			1963	Deepak Dhavalikar	Goa	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	2 / 4,123	0 / 426
Naam Tamilar Katchi			1958	Seeman	Tamil Nadu	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Mizo National Front			1961	Zoramthanga	Mizoram	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	1 / 245	10 / 4,123	0 / 426
People's Party of Arunachal			1977	Kamen Ringu	Arunachal Pradesh	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	1 / 4,123	0 / 426
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party			2018	Hanuman Beniwal	Rajasthan	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Revolutionary Goans Party			2022	Viresh Borkar	Goa	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	1 / 4,123	0 / 426
Revolutionary Socialist Party			1940	Manoj Bhattacharya	Kerala	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Samajwadi Party			1992	Akhilesh Yadav	Uttar Pradesh	0 / 31	0 / 31	37 / 543	4 / 245	112 / 4,123	9 / 426
Shiromani Akali Dal			1920	Sukhbir Singh Badal	Punjab	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	3 / 4,123	0 / 426
Sikkim Democratic Front			1993	Pawan Kumar Chamling	Sikkim	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Sikkim Krantikari Morcha			2013	Prem Singh Tamang	Sikkim	1 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	32 / 4,123	0 / 426
Shiv Sena			2022	Eknath Shinde	Maharashtra	0 / 31	1 / 31	7 / 543	1 / 245	59 / 4,123	8 / 426
Shiv Sena (UBT)			2022	Uddhav Thackeray	Maharashtra	0 / 31	0 / 31	9 / 543	2 / 245	20 / 4,123	6 / 426
Tipra Motha Party			2019	Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma	Tripura	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	13 / 4,123	0 / 426
United Democratic Party			1997	Metbah Lyngdoh	Meghalaya	0 / 31	1 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	11 / 4,123	0 / 426
United People's Party Liberal			2015	Urkhao Gwra Brahma	Assam	0 / 31	1 / 31	1 / 543	1 / 245	7 / 4,123	0 / 426
Voice of the People Party			2021	Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit	Meghalaya	0 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	4 / 4,123	0 / 426
Zoram Nationalist Party			1997	H. Lalrinmawia	Mizoram	0 / 31	0 / 31	0 / 543	0 / 245	0 / 4,123	0 / 426
Zoram People's Movement			2017	Lalduhoma	Mizoram	1 / 31	0 / 31	1 / 543	0 / 245	27 / 4,123	0 / 426

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Lok Sabha, state/UT legislative assembly and municipal/panchayat elections

Rajya Sabha elections

Presidential elections

An electoral collage with unequal number of votes is used for presidential elections. All elected members of Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies and legislative assemblies of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir are allowed to vote.

Vice Presidential elections

All members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are allowed to vote for Vice Presidential elections. This also includes nominated members of Rajya Sabha.

Lok Sabha and state/UT legislative assembly

All elections for members of Lok Sabha and state or union territory legislative assemblies are conducted using first past the post system. Voters are given a list of candidates in the electronic voting machine with candidates arranged in such a way that candidates set up by national party appear in alphabetical order above those set up by state parties in alphabetical order, which appear above those by registered unrecognised parties in alphabetical order above all independent candidates in alphabetical order, all followed by None of the above option. Name of candidates appears in machine in Hindi, English and local languages (if any) along with their coloured photograph and a symbol chosen by (or reserved for) their respective political party (for candidates set up by a party) or a symbol preferred by the candidate out of the options given to them.

Except for polling booths with single voters, votes are generally anonymous.

Postal ballot option is available for public workers or those working for the Indian government if it is not possible for them to vote. ECI may use postal ballot for home voting of deemed necessary.

As in first past the post, the person with most votes win and a draw of lots is used in case of tie. Irrespective of the number of votes cast to NOTA, NOTA cannot be declared winner and the person with most votes win

Rajya Sabha elections

By means of single transferable vote through proportional representation, elections for members of Rajya Sabha is held in state/UT legislative assemblies for staggered terms lasting six years each. Members of state legislative assembly must show their ballot to an official set up by their respective political parties if required by a political party. Votes cast by a person are anonymous to all others except the party official. The none of the above option is not available in these polls and paper ballot is used.

Municipal and Panchayat elections

Though there is no legal requirement to conducted local elections using first past the post system, all states and union territories at all local levels use the first past the post system with almost no change from nationally used method except the NOTA system. In Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi, if NOTA wins more votes than any other candidate, no candidate is declared winner and elections on every such constituency are held again. Use of EVM or paper ballot is decided by the laws of the state, though all states except Karnataka (which uses ballot papers) use EVMs.

State Legislative Council elections

Only six out of 28 states in India have bicameral legislature. Upper house of those state is a state legislative council. One third of the members are elected by members of local authorities, one third by MLAs, one twelfth by teachers who had spent at least three years in teaching in educational institutions within the state not lower than Secondary schools, one twelfth by graduates of three years' standing residing in that state. No elections are contested for the remaining one sigxth seats as they are nominated by the governor from persons having knowledge or practical experience in fields such as literature, science, arts, the co-operative movement and social services. Elections to these seats are conducted the same way as Rajya Sabha elections except that only MLA's constituencies can have an official set up by their respective political parties to view ballot of the voters from the respective parties.

Presidential elections

Presidential elections are conducted though a complex method where combined value of vote of a state is decided in proportion to its population and a single vote is cast for entire value though a ranked choice voting system in an anonymous ballot. The electoral collage consists of all elected members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state/UT legislative assemblies. Population of a state/UT for its value of vote is used as per 1971 census. The votes are completely anonymous and are generally cast in central house of Parliament by MPs and the state/UT legislative assemblies by the respective MLAs. No political party can issue a whip to direct any of its MPs or MLAs on ranking any candidate.

${\displaystyle {\mbox{Value of an MLA vote}}=\lfloor {\cfrac {\mbox{Total population of the state or union territory}}{{\mbox{Total number of elected members of the State Legislative Assembly}}\times {1000}}}\rceil }$${\displaystyle {\mbox{Value of an MP vote}}=\lfloor {\cfrac {\mbox{The sum of vote value of elected members of all the State Legislative Assemblies}}{\mbox{The sum of elected members of both the houses of Parliament}}}\rceil }$

Vice Presidential elections

Vice presidential elections follow a ranked choice voting system in an anonymous ballot just like in Presidential elections but unlike presidential elections, value of vote of all electors is equal. Voting and counting of votes is held in the parliament itself and no political party can issue a whip to direct any of its MPs or MLAs on ranking any candidate.