Written By: Falakdipti An election is a process by which a population, usually of a democratic country, choose individuals and political parties that would represent them and hold a public office. Although the concept of election is quite ancient, elections in the contemporary world emerged at the beginning of the 17th century in Europe and North America. The first general election in India was held from October of 1951 to February of 1952. The type of election process we follow in India is called the First Past The Post system, better known as the FPTP system or the majority system. The candidate who has the highest number of votes is declared the winner. This system is used in the Lok Sabha and the State legislative assembly elections. The Rajya Sabha follows the Proportional Representation system. This system is pretty complicated which is why the countries that follow this system usually only have a few constituencies. It may work in small countries but in India where more than
Written By: Falakdipti Aayaa Ram Gayaa Ram (Ram has come, Ram has gone) is an expression used commonly in Indian politics to refer to political horse-trading, frequently turn coating and floor crossing. The term originated when in 1967, when Gaya Lal, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, from Pataudi Vidhan Sabha Constituency of Haryana. He won the election as an independent candidate and joined the Indian National Congress (INC) and thereafter changed his political allegiance thrice in a single day. Even after this incident, Gaya Lal, a frequent floor-crosser frequently came switching parties and contested elections under different parties such as the Akhil Bhartiya Arya Sabha in 1972, joined the Bhartiya Lok Dal under Chaudhary Charan Singh in 1974 and became the source of the coining of the term Aayaa Ram Gayaa Ram. [i] The Anti Defection Law of 1985 was passed to prevent defections. It was included in the constitution under Rajiv Gandhi’s rule as the tenth schedule of the Consti
