Rajya Sabha is upper house of the Central legislature. The members of the house are elected indirectly by proportional representation system by single transferable vote method. The representatives of each State and two Union territories are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of that State and by the members of the Electoral College for that Union Territory, as the case may be.

Every person who wishes to contest an election has to fill a ‘nomination form’ and give some money as ‘security deposit’. It is a surety on behalf of the candidate to comply with the model code of conduct and is liable to be forfeited if he/she be found involved in electoral malpractices.

The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognize political parties and allot symbols. In case of split where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say with certainty which group has a majority, the EC may freeze the party’s symbol and allow the groups to register themselves with new names or add prefixes or suffixes to the party’s existing names.

The power of superintendence, direction, and control of all elections to the local government bodies vest with the State Election Commissions as envisaged in Article 243K of the Constitution of India. The Constitutional (73rd Amendment) Act, passed in 1992 by the Narasimha Rao government, came into force on April 24, 1993. It was meant to provide constitutional sanction to establish democracy at the grassroots level as it is at the state level or national level. The State Election Commissioner has several unique powers pertaining to the elections to Local Bodies. 

Election Commission is a constitutional body responsible for conducting free and fair elections to various posts in the country. The headquarters of Election Commission is situated in New Delhi. It operates under the authority of Constitution per Article 324 and subsequently enacted Representation of the People Act.