How India is governed
Elections, not exams, fill this ladder. Every rank below answers one question: who has the power to make policy, and how did they get it?
Village to Republic, rung by rung
Gram Panchayat
A village's own government — Sarpanch and Panchs, elected locally.
MLA (Vidhayak)
One elected member per assembly constituency, sitting in the state's Vidhan Sabha.
Chief Minister
Leader of the party/alliance with a majority in the state assembly — head of the state government.
MP (Lok Sabha)
One elected member per parliamentary constituency, sitting in Parliament's lower house.
Prime Minister
Leader of the party/alliance with a majority in the Lok Sabha — head of the union government.
President of India
Elected by an electoral college of all MPs and MLAs — the ceremonial head of state.
Every institution, explained on its own page
Local Governance
Gram Panchayat, Block, Zilla Parishad, Municipal Corporation — democracy closest to home.
Read moreChief Minister & MLA
How a constituency elects an MLA, and how a state gets its Chief Minister.
Read moreLok Sabha
The House of the People — 543 directly elected members who can make or break a government.
Read moreRajya Sabha
The Council of States — indirectly elected, permanent, and never fully dissolved.
Read morePrime Minister
How India's most powerful office is filled without a direct national vote for it.
Read morePresident & Governor
India's ceremonial heads of state — elected indirectly, at the Union and State level.
Read moreParties & Elections
How a party is registered, recognised, and how it picks who gets the ticket.
Read moreCouncil of Ministers
Cabinet Minister, Minister of State, and how a portfolio like Education is assigned.
Read moreWhere the two ladders meet — A Minister is a politician who has been given charge of a department — the political ladder appoints them, but the department is run day-to-day by career officers from the service ladder. See Civil Services for that side.