Indirect elections

Not every election in India is one where citizens vote directly. Some are indirect: the people elect representatives, and those representatives then elect someone else.

The chapter's picture: if a school council were elected by the class representatives instead of by all students, that would be an indirect election.

The Rajya Sabha works this way. Of its 245 members, 233 are elected by the elected members of the state legislative assemblies (the MLAs), and the President nominates 12 (people known for their work in fields such as literature, science, art and social service). The number of seats per state depends on population, so Uttar Pradesh has more than Arunachal Pradesh.

It is called the Permanent House because it is never dissolved. Members serve six years, and one-third retire every two years, so the house always carries on while renewing itself.

Its voting uses the 'single transferable vote' system: MLAs rank the candidates by preference (1, 2, 3...). If a candidate is eliminated, their votes pass to the voters' next choice. This helps make sure smaller states also get fair representation.

The President is elected by an electoral college: MPs from both houses, plus MLAs from every state and from Delhi and Puducherry. The same single transferable vote is used, so that a President who represents the whole country has support from both the centre and the states.

Now the careful part. Several groups are left out:

• nominated members of the Rajya Sabha;
• nominated members of state assemblies;
• members of Legislative Councils (in states with two houses);
• nominated members from Delhi and Puducherry.

The rule behind the list is one line: only directly elected representatives vote for the President. The Vice President, elected by both Houses of Parliament, including nominated members, chairs the Rajya Sabha and steps in if the President cannot do the job.