Politics of India works within the framework of the country's Constitution. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic in which the president of India is the head of state & first citizen of India and the Prime Minister of India is the head of government. It is based on the federal structure of government, although the word is not used in the Constitution itself. India follows the dual polity system, i.e. federal in nature, that consists of the central authority at the centre and states at the periphery. The Constitution defines the organizational powers and limitations of both central and state governments; it is well recognised, fluid and considered supreme, i.e. the laws of the nation must conform to it. India is officially declared a secular and socialist state as per the Constitution.
Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda is an Indian politician who was Prime Minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. He presently is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing Karnataka. He is the national president of the Janata Dal (Secular) party. Born in a farming family, he joined the Indian National Congress party in 1953, and remained a member until 1962. He was imprisoned during the Emergency. He became President of the state unit of Janata Dal in 1994, and was considered to be a driving force in the party's victory in Karnataka. He served as the 8th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. In the 1996 general elections, no party won enough seats to form a government. When the United Front, a coalition of regional parties, formed the central government with the support of the Congress, Deve Gowda was unexpectedly chosen to head the government after V. P. Singh and Jyoti Basu declined the post and he was elected Prime Minister. During his tenure as prime minister, he also served as Home Minister for some time. His prime ministerial tenure lasted for less than a year. After his prime ministerial tenure, he was elected to the 12th (1998), 14th (2004), 15th, and 16th Lok Sabha, as Member of Parliament for the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. He lost Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Tumkuru but has been elected to Rajya Sabha since.
The Samajwadi Party is a socialist political party in India. It was founded on 4 October 1992 by former Janata Dal politician Mulayam Singh Yadav and is headquartered in New Delhi. The Samajwadi Party is currently led by former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav. As of 2024, it is currently the third-largest political party in India, and the largest party in Uttar Pradesh.
Janata Dal (United) ("People's Party (United)"), abbreviated as JD(U), is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar and Manipur and is a part of government in both the states. JD(U) heads the government in Bihar and is part of the NDA government in Manipur. JD(U) won 12 seats in the 2024 Indian general election, making it the seventh largest party in the Lok Sabha. JD(U) states that they believe in promoting social justice and lifting up marginalized peoples.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Ram Vilas Paswan was an Indian politician from Bihar and the Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the first and second Modi ministries. Paswan was also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, nine-times Lok Sabha member and two-time Rajya Sabha MP. He started his political career as member of Samyukta Socialist Party and was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1969. Later, Paswan joined Lok Dal upon its formation in 1974, and became its general secretary. He opposed the emergency, and was arrested during this period. He first entered the Lok Sabha in 1977, as a Janata Party member from Hajipur constituency, and was elected again in 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy is an Indian politician from Bihar. He is a four-time Member of Parliament representing Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2023, he won from Saran in Bihar. Earlier, he won three times in 1996, 1999 and 2014 from Chapra Assembly Constituency, which later became Saran. He was also an MLA from Taraiya Assembly Constituency representing Janata Dal in 1990. He is also a licensed pilot.
A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district (constituency) to the legislature of State government in the Indian system of government. From each constituency, the people elect one representative who then becomes a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Each state has between seven and nine MLAs for every Member of Parliament (MP) that it has in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's bicameral parliament. There are also members in three unicameral legislatures in Union Territories: the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the Puducherry Legislative Assembly. Only a Member of the Legislative Assembly can work as a minister for more than 6 months. If a non-Member of the Legislative Assembly becomes a Chief Minister or a minister, he must become an MLA within 6 months to continue in the job. Only a Member of the Legislative Assembly can become the Speaker of the Legislature.
Although India is a parliamentary democracy, the country's politics has become dynastic or with high level of nepotism, possibly due to the absence of party organizations, independent civil-society associations which mobilize support for a party, or centralized financing of elections. The dynastic phenomenon is present at the national, state, regional, and district level. The Nehru–Gandhi family has produced three Indian prime ministers, and family members have largely led the Congress party since 1978. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has several dynastic leaders. In addition to the major national parties, other national and regional parties such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal Secular, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Kerala Congress, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Indian Union Muslim League, AIMIM, and the Nationalist Congress Party are all dominated by families, mostly those of the party founders.
Prasanna Acharya is an Indian politician from Odisha, India. He is a former member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He is a member of the Biju Janata Dal.
Giridhari Yadav is an Indian politician, Member of Parliament (Loksabha) and member of Janata Dal (United) political party. He represents Banka Lok Sabha Constituency, Bihar.
In India, a number of political positions and university posts are held for specific groups of the population, including Scheduled Castes(SC) and Scheduled Tribes(ST), and women in some cases.
Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2009 general election in India. It was dissolved on 18 May 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee.
The politics of Odisha are part of India's federal parliamentary representative democracy, where the union government exercises sovereign rights. Certain powers are reserved to the states, including Odisha. The state has a multi-party system, in which the two main parties are the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the regional, socialist Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The Indian National Congress (INC) has also significant presence.
Elections in Andhra Pradesh are conducted in accordance with the Constitution of India. The Assembly of Andhra Pradesh creates laws regarding the conduct of local body elections unilaterally while any changes by the state legislature to the conduct of state level elections need to be approved by the Parliament of India. In addition, the state legislature may be dismissed by the Parliament according to Article 356 of the Indian Constitution and President's rule may be imposed.
Ram Sundar Das was an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Bihar state. He was a two-time Member of Parliament from Hajipur constituency.
Chaturanan Mishra was an Indian politician and trade unionist. Mishra, who was born in Nahar, Madhubani District, was a key leader of the Communist Party of India in Bihar, and served as the Agriculture Minister of India in the United Front government.
Chhedi Paswan is a former member of 16th Lok Sabha and a former member of Bihar Legislative Assembly. He represented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2014 to 2024. At various points, he has been with Janata Party, then its Charan Singh faction, then the reunited Janata Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD and Nitish Kumar's JD(U).
Shakuni Choudhary is an Indian politician who is a founding member of Samata Party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Khagaria Lok Sabha constituency as member of the Samata Party. Choudhary has been known for political defection and has remained Deputy Speaker in the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
Surendra Prasad Yadav is an Indian politician from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and a Member of Parliament representing Jahanabad(Lok Sabha constituency) in Bihar, India and former Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. He also served as a member of 12th Lok Sabha of India from Jahanabad(Lok Sabha constituency). He was consecutively elected Eight times since 1990 to 2020 the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
