Politics of Election Reforms in India

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Elections which connote a chain of processes from filing of nominations to the declaration of results have a vital and dynamic role to play in democracy. Both are so much inter twined that it is not possible to conceive of one without conceiving of the other. Whereas democracy implies a government of the nominees of the people elections provide the necessary outlet to elect them. It is only through the mode of elections that the real will of the people can be ascertained and a truly representative form of government clothed with legitimate authority can be formed. Elections ensure a peaceful and orderly change in the government without involving any kind of Violence. They are the bastion of People's liberties and a sure check on the growth of any dictatorial tendencies.

But to conduct free and fair elections what is needed is an election machinery which must be well organised at all levels Centre, State, District, Constituency, Tehsil, Village etc. The officials must be equipped with powers wide enough to foist any attempts by the political parties to outmanoeuvre the election machinery. They must possess a degree of independence necessary to create a proper atmosphere and inspire confidence among the voters and the political parties and their candidates. But to render the provision of impartial and efficient election machinery effective a well-knit election law providing for all the electoral and legal processes is a sine-qua-non. A well developed and consolidated election law is the necessary beacon-light to guide the captain of the ship to steer it on the right course.

Luckily the Constitution of India meets the above requirements considerably. Under Articles 324 to 329 vast and blanket powers have been vested in the Election Commission of India to conduct the elections in the country with an air of independence. This assumes all the greater importance in a country where with each election the electorate are ever on the increase. With an electorate of just 170 million voters in 1952 the present strength of the electorate in 1988 is around 40 crores. This is a natural outcome of the teeming millions in India which is only the second largest country in population after China. The election machinery and the election law must, therefore, be stream- lined with the changing requirements and circumstances.

The methodology employed in writing out the books is all primary and subsidiary sources on the subject have been scanned through. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha debates, the Election Commission reports, the Constitution of India, Election law manuals and quite a large number of books written by the Indian and foreign authors besides journals and newspapers have been consulted.

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