Explained: India’s Lok Sabha Election
The Lok Sabha Election results have started to come out! Here’s a video explaining you how they are conducted.
The day India had been waiting for is here. Today, the results of the Lok Sabha elections, also known as general elections, are being announced.
As you all know, India’s Lok Sabhas election was the largest democratic election in the world. It was carried out in 7 phases to allow 97 crore registered voters to choose the country’s leader. The polling began on 19th April 2024 and concluded on 1st June 2024.
A total of 64.2 crore voters voted in this election of which 31.2 crore were women. This made it the highest-ever participation by women voters in India.
India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) ran for the 3rd consecutive year.
This election was heavily criticized for lack of action on BJP’s hate speeches, Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctioning, and suppression of BJP’s political opponents.
But, how does the electoral system work in India? Let's find out.
Lok Sabha is also known as the lower house or the House of People as it is made up of Members of Parliament (MPs). Each MP represents a single geographic constituency.
As per Article 83 of the Indian Constitution, Lok Sabha elections must be held once every 5 years.
Currently, Lok Sabha has 543 seats. Out of these 543, 524 members represent people of 28 states and 19 members represent people of 8 union territories based on their population. This means that the higher the population of the state/constituency, the higher the number of seats it will have in Lok Sabha.
For example, Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats & Andhra Pradesh has 25 while Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, etc. have 1 seat each in Lok Sabha.
Multiple parties can win multiple seats in the states that have more than 1 seat in Lok Sabha. Who wins how many seats depends on the number of votes they have received in the polling of that state/constituency.
For example, out of the 25 seats of Andhra Pradesh, 15 can be won by 1 party, 7 by another, and 3 by another.
This means, that the higher the number of votes more the number of seats won in Lok Sabha.
At the end of the day, the party winning a majority of seats in all the states combined will form the Central Government in India.
The majority winning party then selects one of the winners as their representative, who becomes the prime minister.
As and when the results are announced, ISH News will keep you all posted.
