What Is the Model Code of Conduct?
The rules that bind parties, candidates and governments from the moment an election is announced. It is not a law, and that matters.
Election Explainers
What Is an Assembly Constituency?
An Assembly constituency is the geographic unit that elects one MLA. Understanding it explains most of what confuses people about Indian election results.
How Indian Elections Work
One vote, one constituency, one winner. A plain-language tour of how India actually elects its legislatures.
Exit Polls and the Silence Period
Two separate restrictions, often confused. One silences campaigning for 48 hours. The other silences exit polls for weeks.
What Is President’s Rule?
Article 356 suspends a state government. The Bommai judgment tightened it considerably, and use fell sharply afterwards.
Who Actually Runs Indian Elections
The Election Commission is a constitutional body, not a government department. What it controls, and the things it deliberately does not.
How the President of India Is Elected
An electoral college of elected MPs and MLAs, with votes of different values, counted by single transferable vote.
What Is Delimitation?
Redrawing constituency boundaries and reallocating seats. India froze it on 1971 figures, and that freeze is now expiring.