How state elections are held in India, here is an overview  

State Elections Procedure in India


The basic meaning of democracy or a democratic country is ‘for the people’, ‘by the people’ and ‘of the people’. The very agenda of ‘by the people’ is why elections are held in India. As a result, an election is a process to select representatives among the people to run the government.

Since in a country like India with a huge population, it is very difficult for one person to rule the whole country. Hence, a system is formed where a group of people would select one person to represent their interests. This one person would rule a particular area in the favor of people’s interests.

Process of Election in India

1. Marking of Constituencies

Constituencies are areas marked for people to elect their representatives from. In India, each constituency has roughly a similar size of the population, meaning the number ofcourse, varies from state to state. This also implies that the number of seats (example, in Lok Sabha) is in proportion to the population of the state.

2. Preparation of Electoral Rolls

Each constituency has people who vote for their representative and people who stand for elections. ‘Electoral Rolls’ are the list of voters in one constituency. In India, there is a universal franchise by law. This means that every individual above the age of 18 has a right to vote and choose his representative. And hence, all their names should be there in their respective electoral rolls.

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elections in india

3. Registration of Political Parties

A political party has to register themselves with the election commission and an individual each party would file their nomination papers. India is a country that allows every individual to stand in elections, as long as they have a ‘ticket’. Any person contesting for elections gets a ‘ticket’ from the political party and only, then they can contest for formal elections. Every political party has a symbol of their own. For instance, BJP has a lotus flower.

4. Political Campaigning

Each party contesting elections has a particular ideology and set of policies. They need to hold political campaigns for around two weeks in order to publicize them and gather voters. Ideally, they need to do this ethically by convincing voters with good policies and plans. In India, they’re given a particular limit of expenditure, beyond which they can’t spend more money.

5. Voting Day Preparations

This day is finally when voters come to vote for their choice of representatives in election booths. Earlier, people used to vote by ballot paper, but nowadays, they use EVM (electronic voting machines) by simply pressing a button on their party symbol. The votes are then counted and the candidate with the majority of the votes wins the election.

Opinion Poll

Opinion polls are surveys which determine the voter’s preferences among the candidates running for the election. An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll, is a kind of voter behavior survey conducted to gauge the public opinion before voting takes place.

Exit Poll

The Exit poll is a post-voting poll, which is conducted just after a voter walks out after casting his or her vote. Such polls aim at predicting the actual result on the basis of the information collected from voters. An exit poll takes place after the voting and gives an average result, which is majority of the times proved to be the right guess.

Section 126A of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, puts a ban on exit polls from the period between the commencements of the poll until half an hour after the closing of the final phase of the poll.

However, there are no similar restrictions placed on opinion polls under RPA. EC has held consultations with political parties to revive its demand to restrict pre-election opinion polls as well from the date of notification of elections until the end of polling. But no action has been taken so far.

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