🇮🇳 India

Executive power rests with a Council of Ministers led by the prime minister, who must command the confidence of the lower house of Parliament; the president, chosen by an electoral college of national and state legislators, is a largely ceremonial head of state. Parliament is bicameral: the directly elected Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the indirectly elected Rajya Sabha (Council of States), whose members are chosen by the state legislatures to represent India's states and union territories. The Lok Sabha has 543 elected seats filled by first-past-the-post in single-member constituencies for five-year terms, with a bloc of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; a majority requires 272. Elections are administered by the Election Commission of India, an independent constitutional authority, and are conducted with electronic voting machines over several weeks in multiple phases — a logistical undertaking without parallel anywhere in the world.

Figures from official electoral authorities — see Data & Methodology. Last updated 2026-11-02.