Electoral Politics..........Part II

Q4. What is general election and by election?

1. After five years the term of all the elected representatives comes to an end. 
2. The Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha stands‘dissolved’. 
3. Elections are held in all constituencies at the same time, either on the same day or within a few days. 
4. This is called a general election. 
5. Sometimes election is held only for one constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member.
6. This is called a by-election.

Q5. What are Electoral constituencies?

1. The country is divided into different areas for purposes of elections.
2. These areas are called electoral constituencies. 
3. The voters who live in an area elect one representative. 
4. For Lok Sabha elections, the country is divided into 543 constituencies.
5. The representative elected from each constituency is called a Member of Parliament or an MP.  
6. Each constituency have a roughly equal population living within it.

1. Each state is divided into a specific number of Assembly constituencies
2. The elected representative is called the Member of Legislative Assembly or an MLA. 
3. Each Parliamentary constituency has within it several
   assembly constituencies. 

1. For Panchayat and Municipal elections. Each village or town is divided into several ‘wards’ that are like constituencies. 
2. Each ward elects one member of the village or the urban local body.
3. These constituencies are counted as ‘seats’, as for each constituency represents one seat in the assembly. 

1. For example 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.