Conclusion

Elections and how representative they genuinely are decide whether a representative democracy actually works and is trusted. Judged against several factors, India's system has largely succeeded: voters have been able to freely choose — and peacefully change — governments at both the State and national level; participation has stayed consistently high, with a rising number of candidates and parties contesting each election; the system has become steadily more inclusive, drawing representatives from a widening range of social sections (even though women's representation still lags); large-scale rigging and malpractice, though attempted, rarely determine the actual outcome across most of the country; and, most fundamentally, elections have simply become an unquestioned part of India's democratic life — no government has ever disregarded an election verdict, and none has ever been formed without one, giving India's regular, periodic elections a reputation as a genuinely remarkable democratic achievement. …