Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of India, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, and they hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the president of India on the advice of the union council of ministers. The house meets in the Lok Sabha chamber of the Parliament House in New Delhi.

The maximum membership of the house as allotted by the Constitution of India is 552 before the abolition of Anglo-Indian seats, currently it is 550. As of 2025, the house has 543 elected members. Between 1952 and 2020, two additional members of the Anglo-Indian community were nominated by the president of India on the advice of the Indian government, and the practice was abolished in January 2020 by the 104th amendment to the Indian constitution. The new parliament has a maximum seating capacity for 888 members in Lok Sabha.

About 131 seats (24.03%) are reserved for representatives of scheduled castes (84) and scheduled tribes (47). The quorum for the House is 10% of the total membership the house. Unless dissolved sooner, the house continues to operate for five years from the date of its first meeting. However, when a state of emergency in India is declared, this period may be extended by the parliament of India by law or decree. The 18th Lok Sabha is the latest to be elected in May 2024. The Lok Sabha proceedings are televised live on Sansad TV, operating from within the parliament premises.

An exercise to redraw the boundaries of the Lok Sabha constituencies is carried out by the delimitation commission. It is carried out every decade based on the census of India, the last of which was conducted in 2011. This provision was temporarily suspended between 1976 and 2001 following a constitutional amendment to incentivize the family planning program which was being implemented. The elections for the seats are conducted by the election commission.

History

A major portion of the Indian subcontinent was under British rule from 1858 to 1947. During this period, the office of the Secretary of State for India (along with the Council of India) was the authority through whom British Parliament exercised its rule in the Indian sub-continent, and the office of Viceroy of India was created, along with an Executive Council in India, consisting of high officials of the British government. The Indian Councils Act 1861 provided for a Legislative Council consisting of the members of the Executive Council and non-official members. The Indian Councils Act 1892 established legislatures in each of the provinces of British India and increased the powers of the Legislative Council. Although these Acts increased the representation of Indians in the government, their power remained limited, and the electorate very small. The Indian Councils Act 1909 admitted some Indians to the various councils. The Government of India Act 1919 further expanded the participation of Indians in the administration, creating the Central Legislative Assembly, for which Parliament House, New Delhi, was built and opened in 1927.

The Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy and proposed a federal structure in India. The Indian Independence Act 1947, passed by the British parliament on 18 July 1947, divided British India (which did not include the Princely states) into two newly independent countries, India and Pakistan, which were to be dominions under the Crown until they had each enacted a new constitution. The Constituent Assembly was divided into two for the separate nations, with each new Assembly having sovereign powers transferred to it for the respective dominion.

The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950, proclaiming India to be a sovereign, democratic republic. This contained the founding principles of the law of the land which would govern India in its new form, which now included all the princely states which had not acceded to Pakistan.

According to Article 79 (Part V-The Union.) of the Constitution of India, the Parliament of India consists of the President of India and the two Houses of Parliament known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha).

The Lok Sabha (House of the People) was duly constituted for the first time on 17 April 1952 after the first General Elections held from 25 October 1951 to 21 February 1952.

List

{|class="wikitable"

|+ Formation of Lok Sabha over time

! Lok Sabha

! Commencement Date

! Dissolution Date

! Duration

!Prime Minister

!Deputy Prime Minister

|First

|13 May 1952

|4 April 1957

| rowspan="2" |Jawaharlal Nehru

| rowspan="3" |Vacant

|Second

|10 May 1957

|31 March 1962

|Third

|16 April 1962

|3 March 1967

|Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi

|Fourth

|16 March 1967

|27 December 1970

| rowspan="2" |Indira Gandhi

|Moraji Desai (till 1969)

|Fifth

|19 March 1971

|18 January 1977

|Vacant

|Sixth

|25 March 1977

|22 August 1979

|Morarji Desai and Charan Singh

|Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram and Yashwantrao Chavan

|Seventh

|21 January 1980

|31 December 1984

|Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi

| rowspan="2" |Vacant

|Eighth

|15 January 1985

|27 November 1989

|Rajiv Gandhi

|Ninth

|18 December 1989

|13 March 1991

|V. P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar

|Devi Lal

|Tenth

|9 July 1991

|10 May 1996

|P. V. Narasimha Rao

| rowspan="3" |Vacant

|Eleventh

|22 May 1996

|4 December 1997

|Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral

|Twelfth

|23 March 1998

|26 April 1999

| rowspan="2" |Atal Bihari Vajpayee

|Thirteenth

|20 October 1999

|6 February 2004

|Lal Krishna Advani

|Fourteenth

|2 June 2004

|18 May 2009

| rowspan="2" |Manmohan Singh

| rowspan="5" |Vacant

|Fifteenth

|1 June 2009

|18 May 2014

|Sixteenth

|4 June 2014

|24 May 2019

| rowspan="3" |Narendra Modi

|Seventeenth

|17 June 2019

|5 June 2024

|Eighteenth

|24 June 2024

|present

Qualifications

Article 84 (under Part V. – The Union) of Indian Constitution sets qualifications for being a member of Lok Sabha, which are as follows:

They should be a citizen of India, and must subscribe before the Election Commission of India, an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
They should not be less than 25 years of age.
They possess other such qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by the Parliament.
They should not be proclaimed criminal i.e. they should not be a convict, a confirmed debtor or otherwise disqualified by law; and
They should have their name in the electoral rolls in any part of the country.

However, a member can be disqualified from being a member of Parliament:

If they hold the office of profit;
If they are of unsound mind and stand so declared by a competent court
If they are an undischarged insolvent;
If they are not a citizen of India, or have voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State, or are under any acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State;
If they are violating party discipline (as per the Tenth Schedule of the constitution); disqualified under Representation of People Act.

A seat in the Lok Sabha will become vacant in the following circumstances (during the normal functioning of the House):

When the holder of the seat, by writing to the speaker, resigns.
When the holder of the seat is absent from 60 consecutive days of proceedings of the House, without prior permission of the Speaker.
When the holder of the seat is subject to any disqualifications mentioned in the Constitution or any law enacted by Parliament.
A seat may also be vacated when the holder stands disqualified under the 'Anti-Defection Law'.

Furthermore, as per article 101 (Part V.—The Union) of the Indian Constitution, a person cannot be:

A member of both Houses of Parliament and provision shall be made by Parliament by law for the vacation by a person who is chosen a member of both Houses of his seat in one House or the other.
A member both of Parliament and of a House of the Legislature of a State.

System of elections in Lok Sabha

Members of the Lok Sabha are directly elected by the people of India, based on universal suffrage. Elections are by the people directly to the Lok Sabha and each state is divided into territorial constituencies under two provisions of the Constitution:

Each state is allotted several seats in the Lok Sabha in such a manner that the ratio between that number and its population was as close to uniform as possible. This provision does not apply to states having a population of less than 6 million. The number of seats per state has been frozen under the constitutional amendment of 1976.
Each state is divided into territorial constituencies in such a manner that the ratio between the population of each constituency and the number of seats allotted to it (in each case, one) remain the same throughout the state. This principle is upheld by the boundary reviews mentioned above.

Notes:

The expression "population" while distributing seats among states refers to the population ascertained at the census of 1971, per the Constitutional Amendment of 1976.
The expression "population" while distributing constituencies within a state refers to the population ascertained at the census of 2011.

Shri G. V. Mavalankar was the first Speaker of Lok Sabha (15 May 1952 – 27 February 1956) and Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker (30 May 1952 – 7 March 1956). In the 17th Lok Sabha, Om Birla is the current Speaker.

;Secretariat

The Secretariat of Lok Sabha was set up according to the provisions contained in Article 98 of the Constitution. The said Article, which provides for a separate secretarial staff for each House of Parliament, reads as follows:- 98. Secretariat of Parliament – Each House of Parliament shall have a separate secretarial staff: Provided that nothing in this clause shall be construed as preventing the creation of posts common to both Houses of Parliament. (2) Parliament may by law regulate the recruitment and the conditions of service of persons appointed to the secretarial staff of either House of Parliament.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat functions under the overall guidance and control of the Speaker. The main activities of the Secretariat among other things include the following:

(i) providing secretarial assistance and support to the effective functioning of the House of the People (Lok Sabha) possible to Members of Lok Sabha; (ii) providing amenities as admissible to Members of Lok Sabha; (iii) servicing the various Parliamentary Committees; (iv) preparing research and reference material and bringing out various publications; (v) recruitment of manpower in the Lok Sabha Secretariat and attending to personnel matters; & (vi) preparing and publishing a record of the day-to-day proceedings of the Lok Sabha and bringing out such other publications, as may be required concerning the functioning of the Lok Sabha and its Committees, among other things.

In the discharge of his constitutional and statutory responsibilities, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is assisted by the Secretary-General, who holds the rank equivalent to the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India. The Secretary-General, in turn, is assisted by senior functionaries at the level of Secretary, Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary and other officers and staff of the Secretariat. Since November 2020, the Secretary-General of Lok Sabha is Utpal Kumar Singh, IAS.

Lok Sabha general elections

Each Lok Sabha is constituted after a general election:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! Lok Sabha || General Election

| 1st Lok Sabha || 1951–52 Indian general election

| 2nd Lok Sabha || 1957 Indian general election

| 3rd Lok Sabha || 1962 Indian general election

| 4th Lok Sabha || 1967 Indian general election

| 5th Lok Sabha || 1971 Indian general election

| 6th Lok Sabha || 1977 Indian general election

| 7th Lok Sabha || 1980 Indian general election

| 8th Lok Sabha || 1984 Indian general election

| 9th Lok Sabha || 1989 Indian general election

| 10th Lok Sabha || 1991 Indian general election

| 11th Lok Sabha || 1996 Indian general election

| 12th Lok Sabha || 1998 Indian general election

| 13th Lok Sabha || 1999 Indian general election

| 14th Lok Sabha || 2004 Indian general election

| 15th Lok Sabha || 2009 Indian general election

| 16th Lok Sabha || 2014 Indian general election

| 17th Lok Sabha || 2019 Indian general election

| 18th Lok Sabha || 2024 Indian general election

Statewise representation

As of 26 January 2020, the Lok Sabha is composed of 543 members

made up of up to 524 members representing the people of 28 states and 19 members representing people of 8 Union territories based on their population. While maximum seats can now go up to 550 even though maximum size of the Lok Sabha as outlined in the Constitution of India, at its commencement, was 552 members because after The Constitution (One Hundred and Fourth Amendment) Act, 2019, Article 334 (b) of the Constitution of India was maintained at seventy years. See the table below for details:

{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:left;"

!State/ UT*

!| Seats

| Andaman and Nicobar Islands* || style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Andhra Pradesh || style="text-align:center;" | 25

| Arunachal Pradesh || style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Assam ||style="text-align:center;" | 14

| Bihar ||style="text-align:center;" | 40

| Chandigarh* || style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Chhattisgarh || style="text-align:center;" | 11

| Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu* || style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Delhi (NCT)*|| style="text-align:center;" | 7

| Goa || style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Gujarat || style="text-align:center;" | 26

| Haryana ||style="text-align:center;" | 10

| Himachal Pradesh || style="text-align:center;" | 4

| Jammu and Kashmir* ||style="text-align:center;" | 5

| Jharkhand ||style="text-align:center;" | 14

| Karnataka || style="text-align:center;" | 28

| Kerala ||style="text-align:center;" | 20

| Ladakh* ||style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Lakshadweep* ||style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Madhya Pradesh|| style="text-align:center;" | 29

| Maharashtra ||style="text-align:center;" | 48

| Manipur || style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Meghalaya || style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Mizoram || style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Nagaland || style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Odisha || style="text-align:center;" | 21

| Puducherry* || style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Punjab || style="text-align:center;" | 13

| Rajasthan ||style="text-align:center;" | 25

| Sikkim ||style="text-align:center;" | 1

| Tamil Nadu || style="text-align:center;" | 39

| Telangana || style="text-align:center;" | 17

| Tripura || style="text-align:center;" | 2

| Uttarakhand ||style="text-align:center;" | 5

| Uttar Pradesh || style="text-align:center;" | 80

| West Bengal || style="text-align:center;" | 42

|Total ||style="text-align:center;" | 543

Membership by party

No. of Lok Sabha MP's party-wise:

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="text-align:center;"

! colspan="2" | Alliance

! colspan="2" | Party

! No. of MPs

! Leader of the Party

| rowspan="14" bgcolor="" |

| rowspan="14" | Government NDA Seats: 292

| 240

| Narendra Modi (Leader of the House)

| 16

| Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu

| 12

| Dileshwar Kamait

| 7

| Shrikant Shinde

| 5

| Chirag Paswan

| 2

| M. Mallesh Babu

| 2

| Vallabhaneni Balashowry

| 2

| Rajkumar Sangwan

| 1

| Anupriya Patel

| 1

| Phani Bhusan Choudhury

| 1

| Chandra Prakash Choudhary

| 1

| Jitan Ram Manjhi

| 1

| Sunil Tatkare

| 1

| Indra Hang Subba

| rowspan="18" |INDIA Seats: 209

| 98

| Rahul Gandhi (Leader of the Opposition)

| 37

| Akhilesh Yadav

| 28

| Abhishek Banerjee

| 9

| Arvind Sawant

| 8

| Supriya Sule

| 4

| K. Radhakrishnan

| 4

| Abhay Kumar Sinha

| 3

| E. T. Mohammed Basheer

| 3

| Joba Majhi

| 2

| K. Subbarayan

| 2

| Raja Ram Singh

| 2

| Mian Altaf Ahmed

| 2

| Thol. Thirumavalavan

| 1

| Rajkumar Roat

| 1

| Francis George

| 1

| Hanuman Beniwal

| 1

| N. K. Premachandran

| 3

Pappu Yadav
Mohmad Haneefa
Vishal Patil

| rowspan="11" |Unaligned Seats: 39

| 22

| T. R. Baalu

| 4

| P. V. Midhun Reddy

| 3

| Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer

| 2

| Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa

| 1

| Asaduddin Owaisi

| 1

| Chandrashekhar Azad

| 1

| Harsimrat Kaur Badal

| 1

| Joyanta Basumatary

| 1

| Richard Vanlalhmangaiha

| 1

| Durai Vaiko

| 2

Umeshbhai Patel
Sheikh Abdul Rashid

| colspan="4" |Vacant

| 3

Basirhat
Shillong
Nagaon

! colspan="4" |Total

! 543

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Lok Sabha website
General Elections 2019