UPSC Prelims 2017 · Question 26 of 99
UPSC Prelims 2017 question on First Past the Post Elections
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2017
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectPolity
- TopicConstitutional Bodies
- DifficultyMedium
- TypeStatement
Consider the following statements:
1. In the election for Lok Sabha or State Assembly, the winning candidate must get at least 50 percent of the votes polled, to be declared elected.
2. According to the provisions laid down in the Constitution of India, in Lok Sabha, the Speaker’s post goes to the majority party and the Deputy Speaker’s to the Opposition.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Show answer
Answer: D. Neither 1 nor 2
Verdict
The answer is neither 1 nor 2. India uses first past the post rather than a fifty per cent threshold, and the Constitution does not reserve the Deputy Speaker's post for the Opposition.
Analysis
Statement 1 is INCORRECT. In Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections the candidate polling more votes than any other is declared elected, with no requirement of an absolute majority, which is the first past the post system. Statement 2 is INCORRECT. The Constitution provides that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha are chosen by the House from among its own members. Offering the Deputy Speaker's post to the Opposition is a convention, not a constitutional provision, and the statement claims the latter.
Source
M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity, chapter on Parliament.
How to crack it
Statement 2 turns on four words, according to the provisions laid down in the Constitution, and the whole question lives there. Convention and constitutional text are different things and UPSC tests the boundary repeatedly, as it does with the Prime Minister's appointment and the Governor's discretion. Whenever a statement attributes a familiar practice to the Constitution, ask whether the Constitution actually says it or whether practice has simply settled that way.