• Hardeep Kaur

Abstract: India conducts the largest regular democratic exercise on the planet, yet the translation of votes into legitimate, accountable representation remains deeply contested. Drawing on primary constitutional provisions, Election Commission of India (ECI) documentation, and a close reading of recent scholarship—including Bhat et al.’s 2022 audit of the system—this paper offers a holistic reassessment of India’s electoral architecture. It situates contemporary problems such as money and muscle power, criminalization of politics, representational distortions, and administrative lapses within a broader historical and comparative framework. The study employs a descriptive-analytical methodology supplemented by illustrative quantitative snapshots (e.g., the escalation of candidate assets and criminal indictments). It argues that India’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) model, designed for a very different socio-political context, is now over-burdened by the demographic complexity and partisan fragmentation of the twenty-first century. The paper concludes with a reform agenda that favors a two-round majoritarian threshold, state-funded campaign vouchers, a permanent professional electoral service, and time-bound judicial processes for candidate cases. These proposals, it contends, are essential if India is to realize the full democratic promise implicit in Articles 324–329 of its Constitution.

India; Electoral System; Election Commission of India; Money Power; Criminalization of Politics; Electoral Reform; Comparative Politics

"Re imagining Electoral Democracy in India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 2, page no.I289-I291, February-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2502827.pdf

"Re imagining Electoral Democracy in India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 2, page no. ppI289-I291, February-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2502827.pdf