Elections

An election is one of the most important practices of a democracy. India, being the world’s largest democracy has quite extravagant state elections. Election Commission of India administers and monitors the state elections. It is a practice in which people assess the work done by their elected representatives, and according to that, they vote. The government appears and works on three levels- local, state and central. Let’s learn more about the state elections in this section.

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MLAs

It is very important to know about the MLAs. People vote to elect an MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly). The MLAs all together form the government. MLAs are representatives of the people. Each state has different areas or constituencies. In these constituencies, representatives from various parties stand for the position of MLA. People vote for their representative and the MLA with highest votes represents the whole constituency.

It is not that all MLA’s should belong to the same party. If representatives from the same party have won in many constituencies then the party is considered to be the majority party and the leader of the party becomes the chief minister or minister. In simple words, a party which has a large of MLA’s becomes the ruling party.

Chief Minister

• After the state elections, the elected MLAs of the party (with the majority) choose their leader who becomes the chief minister.
• The Chief Minister elects the minister for various departments.
• After all these processes, the government appoints the chief minister and other ministers.
• The chief minister and other ministers have separate offices to carry out their work.

Legislative Assembly

A legislative assembly is a common place where all the MLAs meet together and discuss various issues. Some MLAs are also appointed as ministers; hence they have a dual responsibility to work as a minister as well as an MLA. The legislative assembly is an impressive building. The Legislative Assembly discusses Current Issues.

• In the legislative assembly, the MLAs are given the freedom to tell their opinions, give suggestions to a problem, raise questions about the issue, and respond to a question raised.
• The minister has to answer them and ensure that proper steps have been taken by the legislative assembly to clear that problem.
• It is the duty of the minister and other MLAs to cooperate and work to solve any problem that occurs and to run the government without any confusions.

Government

The chief minister is the head of the team of MLAs and ministers and all of them together form the government.

• They form the executive i.e. the government. People can express their opinions in any way.
• Legislative assembly is not a platform just for the MLAs to express their opinions but to put forward the demands of the people and also to remind the government of its work.
• There are various departments in a government like the agriculture department, public work department, transport department, the health department and the education department.
• The government has to answer the steps taken to solve any problem, and the government is responsible for answering the public.
• The government has the power to make new laws for improvement of public welfare like sanitation and health.

A gist

• The municipal corporation must ensure they provide safe and clean toilets both privately and publicly.
• It is consequently the responsibility of the government to appoint health workers in every village.
• The Parliament makes laws for the whole country.
• The main authorities are people who elect the Member of Legislative Assembly.
• MLA’s approvals are mandatory for work of the ministers.

Solved Examples for You

Question: Who is an MLA?

Answer: Elected people from the elections become MLAs. They represent their constituencies in the Legislative Assembly.

Question: What is a Legislative Assembly?

Answer: Every state has a legislative assembly. Let’s take an example, the state of Himachal Pradesh is divided into 68 assembly constituencies. People vote for one representative in each constituency who later becomes a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). The MLAs contest in elections from political parties and hence, represent these parties too.