Legislature and Executive under the Indian Constitution Unicameral and bicameral Legislatures

When Maharashtra votes, people elect MLAs to the Vidhan Sabha. Yet the State also has a Vidhan Parishad, a second House that is never dissolved and is not chosen by the voters in one go. Some States have no such House at all. Why do some legislatures have one House and others two, and what does the second House actually do? The Constitution answers in Parts V and VI, and the answer also explains why the ministers who run the government sit inside the legislature that is meant to watch them.

In two minutes

Parliament is the President plus two Houses (Council of States and House of the People); a State Legislature is the Governor plus one House or two, and in every case the executive is answerable to the directly elected lower House.

The rest of this chapter

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