State governments of India

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State governments in India are the governments ruling over 28 states and 8 union territories of India and the head of the Council of Ministers in a state is the Chief Minister. Power is divided between the Union government and state governments. While the Union government handles defence, external affairs etc., the state government deals with internal security and other state issues. Income for the Union government is from customs duty, excise tax, income tax etc., while state government income comes from sales tax (VAT), stamp duty etc.; now these have been subsumed under the various components of the Goods and Services Tax

Contents

Each state has a legislative assembly. A state legislature that has one house – the State Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) – is a unicameral legislature.

A state legislature that has two houses – the State Legislative Assembly and State Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) – is a bicameral legislature. The Vidhan Sabha is the lower house and corresponds to the Lok Sabha while the Vidhan Parishad is the upper house and corresponds to the Rajya Sabha of the Parliament of India.

The Sarkaria Commission was set up to review the balance of power between states' and the Union governments. The Union government can dissolve a state government in favour of President's rule if necessary, subject to certain conditions, as ruled by the Supreme Court of India in S. R. Bommai v. Union of India. It is for 5 years only.

Legislative

For every state, there is a legislature, which consists of a Governor and either one or two houses. [1]

State/Union TerritoryLegislature typeSize
Lower [2] Upper [3] Total
Andhra Pradesh Bicameral 17558233
Arunachal Pradesh Unicameral 60—60
Assam Unicameral 126—126
Bihar Bicameral 24375318
Chhattisgarh Unicameral 90—90
Delhi Unicameral 70—70
Goa Unicameral 40—40
Gujarat Unicameral 182—182
Haryana Unicameral 90—90
Himachal Pradesh Unicameral 68—68
Jammu and Kashmir Unicameral 90—90
Jharkhand Unicameral 81—81
Karnataka Bicameral 22475299
Kerala Unicameral 140—140
Madhya Pradesh Unicameral 230—230
Maharashtra Bicameral 28878366
Manipur Unicameral 60—60
Meghalaya Unicameral 60—60
Mizoram Unicameral 40—40
Nagaland Unicameral 60—60
Odisha Unicameral 147—147
Puducherry Unicameral 30 [lower-alpha 1] —33
Punjab Unicameral 117—117
Rajasthan Unicameral 200—200
Sikkim Unicameral 32—32
Tamil Nadu Unicameral 234—234
Telangana Bicameral 11940159
Tripura Unicameral 60—60
Uttar Pradesh Bicameral 403100503
Uttarakhand Unicameral 70—70
West Bengal Unicameral 294—294
Total—4,1234264,547
  1. ↑ 3 additional seats are nominated by Government of India

Legislative Council

6 out of 28 states have bicameral legislatures, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, with the remaining states having a unicameral one. Parliament may, by law, provide for the abolition of an existing Legislative Council or for the creation of one where it does not exist, if the proposal is supported by a resolution of the Legislative Assembly of the state concerned.

The Legislative Council of a state comprises not more than one-third of the total number of members in the legislative assembly of the state and in no case fewer than 40 members. About one-third of members of the Council are elected by members of the legislative assembly from amongst persons who are not its members, one-third by electorates consisting of members of municipalities, district boards and other local authorities in the state, one-twelfth by an electorate consisting of persons who have been, for at least three years, engaged in teaching in educational institutions within the state not lower in standard than secondary school and a further one-twelfth by registered graduates of more than three years' standing. Remaining members are nominated by the Governor from among those who have distinguished themselves in literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service. Legislative Councils are not subject to dissolution but one-third of their members retire every second year.

Legislative councils by ruling parties

Ruling partyStates
NDA (2)
Bharatiya Janata Party 1
Janata Dal (United) 1
INDIA (2)
Indian National Congress 2
Others (1)
YSR Congress Party 1

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is in power in 3 legislative councils; the Indian National Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance is in power in 1 legislative councils; 2 legislative councils are ruled by other parties/alliances; and 30 other states/union territories do not have a legislative council.

Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly of a state consists of not more than 500 and not fewer than 60 members (Legislative Assembly of Sikkim has 32 members, while Puducherry has 33, Goa and Mizoram have 40 seats each vide Article 371F of the Constitution) chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the state. Demarcation of territorial constituencies is to be done in such a manner that the ratio between population of each constituency and number of seats allotted to it, as far as practicable, is the same throughout the state. The term of an assembly is five years unless it is dissolved earlier.

Legislative assemblies by ruling parties

   Bharatiya Janata Party (12)
   NDA (BJP led alliance) (6)
   Indian National Congress (3)
   I.N.D.I.A. (INC led alliance) (6)
  Other parties (3)
   President's rule (1)
   No legislature (5)
Ruling partyStates/UTs
NDA (18) [4]
Bharatiya Janata Party 12
Shiv Sena 1
Janata Dal (United) 1
All India N.R. Congress 1
Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party 1
National People's Party 1
Sikkim Krantikari Morcha 1
I.N.D.I.A. (09) [5]
Indian National Congress 3
Aam Aadmi Party 2
All India Trinamool Congress 1
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 1
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha 1
Others
Biju Janata Dal 1
YSR Congress Party 1
Zoram People's Movement 1

The Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance is in power in 18 legislative assemblies; the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance is in power in 9 legislative assemblies; 3 legislative assemblies are ruled by other parties/alliances; and 5 union territories do not have a legislative assembly. The newly formed Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has not had elections to form a government and President's rule has been imposed there.

Powers and Functions

State legislature has exclusive powers over subjects enumerated in the State List (List II of the Seventh Schedule) of the Constitution and concurrent powers over those enumerated in sub List III. Financial powers of legislature include authorization of all expenditure, taxation and borrowing by the state government. The Legislative Assembly alone has the power to originate money bills. The Legislative Council can only make recommendations in respect of changes it considers necessary within a period of fourteen days of the receipt of money bills from the Legislative Assembly, which can accept or reject these recommendations.

The Governor of a state may reserve any Bill for the consideration of the President. Bills relating to subjects like the compulsory acquisition of property, measures affecting powers and position of High Courts, and the imposition of taxes on storage, distribution, and sale of water or electricity in Inter-state River or river valley development projects should necessarily be so reserved. No Bills seeking to impose restrictions on inter-state trade can be introduced in a state legislature without the previous sanction of the President.

State legislatures, apart from exercising the usual power of financial control, use all normal parliamentary devices like questions, discussions, debates, adjournments, and no-confidence motions and resolutions to keep a watch over the day-to-day work of the executive. They also have their own committees on estimates and public accounts to ensure that grants sanctioned by the legislature are properly utilized.

There are, overall, 4,121 legislative assembly seats in states and Union territories of India. [6] [7] [8] Andhra Pradesh abolished its Legislative Council in 1984, but set up a new Legislative Council following elections in 2007. [9]

Executive

The state executive [10] consists of a Governor and the State Council of Ministers, with the Chief Minister as its head.

Governor

The Governor of a state is appointed by the President of India for a term of five years and holds office during their pleasure. Only Indian citizens above 35 years of age are eligible for appointment to this office.

Executive power of the state is vested in the Governor. All Governors are obligated to discharge their constitutional functions such as the appointment of the Chief Minister of a state, sending a report to the President on the failure of the Constitutional machinery in a state or in respect of matters relating to assent to passing a bill in the state assembly.

Similarly, in respect of Arunachal Pradesh, its Governor has special responsibility under Article 371H of the Constitution with respect to law and order and in discharge of his functions in relation thereto. The Governor exercises his individual judgement as to the action to be taken after consulting the Council of Ministers. These are, however, temporary provisions. If the President of India, on receipt of a report from Governor or otherwise is satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the Governor to have special responsibilities with respect to law and order, he may so direct by an order.

Likewise, in the Sixth Schedule which applies to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram as specified in para 20 of that Schedule, discretionary powers are given to the Governor in matters relating to sharing of royalties between the district councils and the state government. The Sixth Schedule vests additional discretionary powers in the Governors of Mizoram and Tripura in almost all their functions (except approving regulations for levy of taxes and money lending by non-tribal district councils) since December 1998. In Sikkim, the Governor has been given special responsibility for peace and social and economic advancement of different sections of population.

Council Of Ministers

The Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor, who also appoints other ministers on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the state.

The Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister as its head aids and advises the Governor in exercise of his functions except in so far as he is by or under the Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them at his discretion. In respect of Nagaland, its Governor has special responsibility under Article 371 A of the Constitution with respect to law and order and even though it is necessary for him to consult Council of Ministers in matters relating to law and order, he can exercise his individual judgement as to the action to be taken.

Judiciary

State High courts have jurisdiction over the whole state, but report to the Supreme Court of India, which may override the high court's judgments and rulings.

List of current state governments

State/Union territoryGovernor/Lt. GovernorChief MinisterRuling party
Andhra Pradesh S. Abdul Nazeer Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy YSR Congress Party
Arunachal Pradesh Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik Pema Khandu Bharatiya Janata Party
Assam Gulab Chand Kataria Himanta Biswa Sarma Bharatiya Janata Party
Bihar Rajendra Arlekar Nitish Kumar Janata Dal (United)
Chhattisgarh Biswabhusan Harichandan Vishnu Deo Sai Bharatiya Janata Party
Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena Arvind Kejriwal Aam Aadmi Party
Goa P. S. Sreedharan Pillai Pramod Sawant Bharatiya Janata Party
Gujarat Acharya Devvrat Bhupendrabhai Patel Bharatiya Janata Party
Haryana Bandaru Dattatreya Manohar Lal Khattar Bharatiya Janata Party
Himachal Pradesh Shiv Pratap Shukla Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu Indian National Congress
Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha N/A
(President's rule)
Jharkhand C P Radhakrishnan Hemant Soren Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
Karnataka Thawar Chand Gehlot Siddaramaiah Indian National Congress
Kerala Arif Mohammad Khan Pinarayi Vijayan Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Madhya Pradesh Mangubhai C. Patel Mohan Yadav Bharatiya Janata Party
Maharashtra Ramesh Bais Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena
Manipur Anusuiya Uikey N. Biren Singh Bharatiya Janata Party
Meghalaya Phagu Chauhan Conrad Sangma National People's Party
Mizoram Kambhampati Hari Babu Lalduhoma Zoram People's Movement
Nagaland La. Ganesan Neiphiu Rio Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party
Odisha Raghubar Das Naveen Patnaik Biju Janata Dal
Puducherry C. P. Radhakrishnan N. Rangaswamy All India N.R. Congress
Punjab Banwarilal Purohit Bhagwant Mann Aam Aadmi Party
Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra Bhajan Lal Sharma Bharatiya Janata Party
Sikkim Lakshman Acharya Prem Singh Tamang Sikkim Krantikari Morcha
Tamil Nadu R. N. Ravi M. K. Stalin Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Telangana C. P. Radhakrishnan Revanth Reddy Indian National Congress
Tripura Indrasena Reddy Manik Saha Bharatiya Janata Party
Uttar Pradesh Anandiben Patel Yogi Adityanath Bharatiya Janata Party
Uttarakhand Gurmit Singh Pushkar Singh Dhami Bharatiya Janata Party
West Bengal C. V. Ananda Bose Mamata Banerjee All India Trinamool Congress

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Home | Know India: National Portal of India". Know India. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  2. ↑ "Terms of the Houses". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  3. ↑ "List of State Legislative Councils of India". Jagranjosh.com. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  4. ↑ "Explained: The 38 parties in the NDA fold". The Indian Express. 19 July 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  5. ↑ Ghosh, Sanchari (19 July 2023). "INDIA from UPA: Opposition's push for a new name explained". mint. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  6. ↑ "Glass ceilings in State Cabinets". The Hindu .
  7. ↑ "Election Commission of India". eci.nic.in.
  8. ↑ "Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment - Government of India" (PDF). socialjustice.nic.in.
  9. ↑ "Legislature". www.aplegislature.org.
  10. ↑ "The Polity : The States -Profile - Know India: National Portal of India". knowindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012.
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