Rajya Sabha in the context of "Indira Gandhi"

28°37′2″N 77°12′29″E / 28.61722°N 77.20806°E / 28.61722; 77.20806The Parliament of India (ISO: Bhāratīya Saṁsada) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President of the Republic of India, in their role as head of the legislature, has full powers to summon and prorogue either house of Parliament or to dissolve the Lok Sabha, but they can exercise these powers only upon the advice of the Prime Minister of the Republic of India and the Union Council of Ministers.

Those elected or nominated (by the president) to either house of the Parliament are referred to as members of Parliament (MPs). The members of parliament in the Lok Sabha are directly elected by the voting of Indian citizens in single-member districts and the members of parliament in the Rajya Sabha are elected by the members of all state legislative assemblies by proportional representation. The Parliament has a sanctioned strength of 543 in the Lok Sabha and 245 in the Rajya Sabha including 12 nominees from the expertise of different fields of literature, art, science, and social service. The Parliament meets at Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi. The Parliament of India represents the largest democratic electorate in the world (the second being the European Parliament), with an electorate of 968 million eligible voters in 2024. On 28 May 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unveiled and inaugurated the New Parliament Building (Sansad Bhavan), located adjacent to the previous one.

Uttar Pradesh (UTT-ər prə-DESH, abbr. UP; Hindi: Uttar Pradēś, pronounced [ˈʊtːəɾ pɾəˈdeːʃ] , lit. 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world – more populous than all but four other countries outside of India (China, United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan) – and accounting for 16.5 per cent of the population of India or around 3 per cent of the total world population. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the west, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to the northwest, Uttarakhand and Nepal to the north, Bihar to the east, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to the south. It is the fourth-largest Indian state by area covering 243,286 km (93,933 sq mi), accounting for 7.3 per cent of the total area of India. Lucknow serves as the state capital, with Prayagraj being the judicial capital. It is divided into 18 divisions and 75 districts.

Uttar Pradesh was established in 1950 after India had become a republic. It is a successor to the United Provinces, established in 1935 by renaming the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, in turn established in 1902 from the North-Western Provinces and the Oudh Province. Though long known for sugar production, the state's economy is now dominated by the services industry. The service sector comprises travel and tourism, hotel industry, real estate, insurance and financial consultancies. The economy of Uttar Pradesh is the third-largest state economy in India, with ₹18.63 lakh crore (US$220 billion) in gross domestic product and a per capita GSDP of ₹68,810 (US$810). The High Court of the state is located in Prayagraj. The state plays an important role in national politics, sending 80 seats to the lower house Lok Sabha and 31 seats to the upper house Rajya Sabha.

The politics and government of India work within the framework of the country's Constitution, which was adopted on November 26, 1949, by the Constituent Assembly. It came into effect on January 26, 1950. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic, described as a “sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic” in its constitution, in which the president of India is the head of state and first citizen of India and the Prime Minister of India is the head of government. It is based on the federal structure of government, although the word is not used in the Constitution itself. India follows the dual polity system, i.e. federal in nature, that consists of the central authority at the centre and states at the periphery. The Constitution defines the organizational powers and limitations of both central and state governments; it is well recognised, fluid (with the Preamble of the Constitution, fundamental rights, and principles of liberty, equality, justice, and fraternity, being rigid and to dictate further amendments to the Constitution) and considered supreme, i.e. the laws of the nation must conform to it. India is officially declared a secular and socialist state as per the Constitution.

There is a provision for a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), which represents the states of the Indian federation, and a lower house, the Lok Sabha (House of the People), which represents the people of India as a whole. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, which is headed by the Supreme Court. The court's mandate is to protect the Constitution, to settle disputes between the central government and the states, to settle inter-state disputes, to nullify any central or state laws that go against the Constitution and to protect the fundamental rights of citizens, issuing writs for their enforcement in cases of violation.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is an act of the parliament of India containing provisions to split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories: Ladakh and the residuary Jammu and Kashmir, and becoming effective on 31 October 2019. A bill for the act was introduced by the Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, in the Rajya Sabha on 5 August 2019 and was passed on the same day. It was then passed by the Lok Sabha on 6 August 2019 and received the president's assent on 9 August 2019.

The act consists of 103 clauses, extends 106 central laws to the union territories, repeals 153 state laws, and abolishes the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council, among other things. The introduction of the bill was preceded by a presidential order which indirectly amended Article 370 of the Indian constitution and revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status. The act has also given powers to the central government to pass a number of executive orders in relation to both the union territories. These orders have resulted in the modification or repeal of over 400 state and central laws with respect to the union territories. The act was challenged in the Supreme Court through a number of petitions. On 11 December 2023, the court declared the act and the related orders to be valid and constitutional, ordering to restore statehood "as soon as possible". A 2023 ruling by the Supreme Court of India resolved its legal dispute.

Parliament House (ISO: Saṁsada Bhavana) in New Delhi is the seat of the Parliament of India. It houses the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, which are lower and upper houses respectively in India's bicameral parliament. It is located on Rafi Marg in Central Vista, the central administrative area in New Delhi. It is located to the east of the Old Parliament House, amongst the other administrative buildings of the Indian government.

The Old Parliament House was constructed in 1927. Proposals for a new parliament building to replace the old one emerged in the early 2010s due to the ageing of the old building. In 2019, the proposal to construct a new parliament building was unveiled by the Government of India as part of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project. It was inaugurated on 28 May 2023 by prime minister Narendra Modi. The new building was first used for official business on 19 September 2023 during a special session of the parliament.

The prime minister of India (ISO: Bhārat kē Pradhānamantrī) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the executive. The prime minister has to be a member of one of the houses of bicameral Parliament of India, alongside heading the respective house. The prime minister and the cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha.

The sitting prime minister ranks third in the Order of Precedence of India and is appointed by the president of India; however, the prime minister has to enjoy the confidence of the majority of Lok Sabha members, who are directly elected every five years, lest the prime minister shall resign. The prime minister can be a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament. The prime minister controls the selection and dismissal of members of the Union Council of Ministers and allocation of posts to members within the government.

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.

A Member of Parliament (MP) in India refers to persons who serve in the Parliament of India. These include:

• Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha: Representative of the Indian citizens to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India.
• Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha: Representative of the Indian states to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.