CHAPTER 4 Electoral Politics - NCERT

1 56 DEMOCRATIC POLITICSOVERVIEWIn CHAPTER Two we have seen that in a democracy it is neither possible nornecessary for people to govern directly. The most common form ofdemocracy in our times is for the people to govern through theirrepresentatives. In this CHAPTER we will look at how these representativesare elected. We begin by understanding why elections are necessary anduseful in a democracy. We try to understand how Electoral competitionamong parties serves the people. We then go on to ask what makes anelection democratic.

2 The basic idea here is to distinguish democraticelections from non-democratic rest of the CHAPTER tries to assess elections in India in the light ofthis yardstick. We take a look at each stage of elections, from the drawingof boundaries of different constituencies to the declaration of results. Ateach stage we ask what should happen and what does happen in the end of the CHAPTER , we turn to an assessment of whetherelections in India are free and fair. Here we also examine the role of theElection Commission in ensuring free and fair 4 ElectoralPolitics2015-16(19/01/2015) WHY ELECTIONS?

3 Government would waive the loans offarmers and small businessmen. Hepromised that this would be the firstaction of his people were unhappy with theexisting government. They were alsoattracted by Devi Lal s promise. So,when elections were held, they votedoverwhelmingly in favour of Lok Daland its allies. Lok Dal and itspartners won 76 out of 90 seats inthe State Assembly. Lok Dal alonewon 60 seats and thus had a clearmajority in the Assembly. TheCongress could win only 5 the election results wereannounced, the sitting ChiefMinister resigned.

4 The newly electedMembers of Legislative Assembly(MLAs) of Lok Dal chose Devi Lal astheir leader. The Governor invitedDevi Lal to be the new ChiefMinister. Three days after theelection results were declared, hebecame the Chief Minister. As soonas he became the Chief Minister, hisGovernment issued a GovernmentOrder waiving the outstanding loansof small farmers, agriculturallabourers and small party ruled the State for fouryears. The next elections were heldin 1991. But this time his party didnot win popular support.

5 TheCongress won the election andformed the Elessembly Elessembly Elessembly Elessembly Eleccccction intion intion intion intion inHHHHH arararararyyyyyanaanaanaanaanaDo most leadersfulfil their electionpromises?Jagdeep and Navpreet read this story and drew the following conclusions. Can you say which ofthese are right or wrong (or if the information given in the story is inadequate to call them right orwrong):<Elections can lead to changes in the policy of the government.<The Governor invited Devi Lal to become the Chief Minister because he was impressed with hisspeeches.

6 <People are unhappy with every ruling party and vote against it in the next election.<The party that wins the election forms the government.<This election led to a lot of economic development in Haryana.<The Congress Chief Minister need not have resigned after his party lost newspaper report is about theState assembly election in Haryanain 1987. The State had been ruled bya Congress party led governmentsince 1982. Chaudhary Devi Lal, thenan opposition leader, led a movementcalled Nyaya Yudh (Struggle forJustice) and formed a new party, LokDal.

7 His party joined other oppositionparties to form a front against theCongress in the elections. In theelection campaign, Devi Lal said thatif his party won the elections, hisThe time is after midnight. An expectantcrowd sitting for the past five hours in achowk of the town is waiting for its leaderto come. The organisers assure and reas-sure the crowd that he would be here anymoment. The crowd stands up whenevera passing vehicle comes that way. Itarouses hopes that he has leader is Mr. Devi Lal, chief ofthe Haryana Sangharsh Samiti, who wasto address a meeting in Karnal on Thurs-day night.

8 The 76-year-old leader, is avery busy man these days. His day startsat 8 and ends after 11 .. hehad already addressed nine electionmeetings since been con-stantly addressing public meetings forthe past 23 months and preparing for POLITICS2015-16(19/01/2015)58 DEMOCRATIC POLITICSACTIVITYDo you know when the last Assembly electionwas held in your state? Which other electionshave taken place in your locality in the last fiveyears? Write down the level of elections (National,Assembly, Panchayat, etc.)

9 , when were they heldand the name and designation (MP, MLA, etc.) ofthe persons who got elected from your do wy do wy do wy do wy do we neee neee neee neee need eled eled eled eled eleccccctions?tions?tions?tions?tions?El ections take place regularly in anydemocracy. We noted in ChapterOne that there are more than onehundred countries in the world inwhich elections take place to choosepeople s representatives. We alsoread that elections are held in manycountries that are not why do we need elections?Let us try to imagine a democracywithout elections.

10 A rule of thepeople is possible without anyelections if all the people can sittogether everyday and take all thedecisions. But as we have alreadyseen in CHAPTER Two, this is notpossible in any large is it possible for everyone tohave the time and knowledge totake decisions on all in most democraciespeople rule through there a democratic way ofselecting representatives withoutelections? Let us think of a placewhere representatives are selectedon the basis of age and a place where they are chosenon the basis of education orknowledge.