NCERT Class 9 Political Science Electoral Politics

Electoral Politics

4.1 WHY ELECTIONS?

government would waive the loans of farmers and small businessmen. He promised that this would be the first action of his government. The people were unhappy with the existing government. They were also attracted by Devi Lal’s promise. So, when elections were held, they voted overwhelmingly in favour of Lok Dal and its allies. Lok Dal and its partners won 76 out of 90 seats in the State Assembly. Lok Dal alone won 60 seats and thus had a clear majority in the Assembly. The Congress could win only 5 seats. Once the election results were announced, the sitting Chief

Minister resigned. The newly elected Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Lok Dal chose Devi Lal as their leader. The Governor invited Devi Lal to be the new Chief Minister. Three days after the election results were declared, he became the Chief Minister. As soon as he became the Chief Minister, his Government issued a Government Order waiving the outstanding loans of small farmers, agricultural labourers and small businessmen. His party ruled the State for four years. The next elections were held in 1991. But this time his party did not win popular support. The Congress won the election and formed the government. Assembly Election in

Haryana Why do we need elections? Elections take place regularly in any democracy. We noted in Chapter One that there are more than onehundred countries in the world in which elections take place to choose people’s representatives. We also read that elections are held in many countries that are not democratic. But why do we need elections?

Let us try to imagine a democracy without elections. A rule of the people is possible without any elections if all the people can sit together everyday and take all the decisions. But as we have already seen in Chapter Two, this is not possible in any large community. Nor is it possible for everyone to have the time and knowledge to take decisions on all matters. Therefore in most democracies people rule through their representatives. Is there a democratic way of selecting representatives without elections? Let us think of a place where representatives are selected on the basis of age and experience. Or a place where they are chosen on the basis of education or knowledge. There could be some difficulty in deciding on who is more experienced or knowledgable. But let  us say the people can resolve these difficulties. Clearly, such a place does not require elections. IIs it good to have political competition?

Elections are thus all about political competition. This competition takes various forms. The most obvious form is the competition among political parties. At the constituency level, it takes the form of competition among several candidates. If there is no competition, elections will become pointless.

But is it good to have politicalcompetition? Clearly, an electoral competition has many demerits. It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’ in every locality. You would have heard of people complaining of ‘party-politics’ in your locality. Different political parties and leaders often level allegations against one another. Parties and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections. Some people say that this pressure to win electoral fights does not allow sensible long-term policies to be formulated. Some good people who may wish to serve the country do not enter this arena. They do not like the idea of being dragged into unhealthy competition.

Our Constitution makers were aware of these problems. Yet they opted for free competition in  elections as the way to select our future leaders. They did so because this system works better in the long run. In an ideal world all political leaders know what is good for the people and are motivated only by a desire to serve them. Political competition is not necessary in such an ideal world. But that is not what happens in real life. Political leaders all over the world, like all other

professionals, are motivated by a desire to advance their political careers. They want to remain in power or get power and positions for themselves.They may wish to serve the people as well, but it is risky to depend entirely on their sense of duty. Besides even when they wish to serve the people, they may not know what is required to do so, or their ideas may not match what the people really want.

exercises

1 Which of the following statements about the reasons for conducting elections are false?

a Elections enable people to judge the performance of the government

b People select the representative of their choice in an election

c Elections enable people to evaluate the performance of the judiciary

d People can indicate which policies they prefer

2 Which of these is not a good reason to say that Indian elections are democratic?

a India has the largest number of voters in the world

b India’s Election Commission is very powerful

c In India, everyone above the age of 18 has a right to vote

d In India, the losing parties accept the electoral verdict

3 List all the different election related activities mentioned in the chapter and arrange them in a time sequence, beginning with the first activity and ending with the last. Some of these activities are given below: releasing election manifestos; counting of votes; making of voters’ list; election campaign; declaration of election results; casting of votes; ordering of re-poll; announcing election schedule; filing nomination.

4 Surekha is an officer in-charge of ensuring free and fair elections in an assembly constituency in a state. Describe what should she focus on for each of the following stages of election:

a Election campaign

b Polling day

c Counting day

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 9 Political Science Electoral Politics