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Indian Polity Quiz

Indian Politics and Polity, 2020 to 2026

The six years from 2020 to 2026 have been unusually dense in Indian constitutional and political history. They include four constitutional amendments that reached the statute book and three more that are still before Parliament, the replacement of the entire criminal law framework inherited from 1860, the striking down of the electoral bonds scheme, the first general election since 2019 and the first Jammu and Kashmir assembly election in a decade, a mid-term change in the office of Vice President, and a run of state elections in 2025 and 2026 that redrew the political map in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. These notes organise that material into legislation, elections, the courts, and institutions, with dates attached to everything so that it can be used for revision. A 20-question practice set follows.

Constitutional Amendments and Major Legislation

Four constitutional amendments were enacted in this period and three important bills remain pending. In an examination the amendment number, the subject and the year are what get tested, so learn them as a set.

  • 104th Amendment Act, 2020: extended the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies by another ten years, and ended the nomination of Anglo-Indian members.
  • 105th Amendment Act, 2021: restored the power of the states and union territories to prepare and maintain their own lists of socially and educationally backward classes, undoing the effect of the Maratha reservation judgment on that point.
  • 106th Amendment Act, 2023, known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam: reserves one third of the seats in the Lok Sabha, the state legislative assemblies and the Delhi assembly for women. It takes effect only after a census and a delimitation exercise have been carried out.
  • The three new criminal laws were passed in December 2023 and came into force on 1 July 2024: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replacing the Indian Penal Code of 1860, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replacing the Indian Evidence Act.
  • The three farm laws of September 2020 were withdrawn by the Farm Laws Repeal Act, 2021, after a year of protest, in a rare full reversal of major central legislation.
  • The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, created a selection committee of the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, replacing the Chief Justice of India whom the Supreme Court had inserted in the Anoop Baranwal judgment of March 2023.
  • The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, was passed by the Lok Sabha on 3 April 2025 and the Rajya Sabha on 4 April 2025 and received presidential assent on 5 April 2025. It removed the doctrine of waqf by use, ended the exemption from the Limitation Act, and altered the composition of waqf boards. Over sixty petitions challenged it and the Supreme Court stayed some of its provisions by interim order.
  • Pending: the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, on simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies, introduced in December 2024 along with the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill and referred to a joint parliamentary committee chaired by P. P. Chaudhary, whose term has been extended into the monsoon session of 2026.
  • Pending: the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, introduced on 20 August 2025, which would remove the Prime Minister, a Chief Minister or a Minister who is arrested and detained for thirty consecutive days on a charge carrying five years or more, with reappointment permitted after release. It too was sent to a joint committee.
  • Also reported for introduction are a further constitutional amendment bill and a delimitation bill in 2026, intended to bring forward the women's reservation and to enlarge the Lok Sabha. Treat these as proposals until they are actually passed.

Elections and Governments

The general election of 2024 returned the National Democratic Alliance to office for a third consecutive term but without a single-party majority for the largest party, which changed the arithmetic of the eighteenth Lok Sabha. The state elections of 2025 and 2026 then produced a string of decisive verdicts, several of them unexpected.

  • Presidential election, July 2022: Droupadi Murmu was elected the fifteenth President of India, the first person from a Scheduled Tribe and the second woman to hold the office.
  • Vice-Presidential elections: Jagdeep Dhankhar was elected in August 2022 and resigned on 21 July 2025 citing health. C. P. Radhakrishnan was elected on 9 September 2025, defeating B. Sudershan Reddy, and was sworn in on 12 September 2025.
  • Lok Sabha election, 2024: the eighteenth Lok Sabha was constituted, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 240 seats and the National Democratic Alliance about 293, and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term on 9 June 2024. The Indian National Congress won 99 seats and Rahul Gandhi became Leader of the Opposition, an office that had been vacant in the two previous Lok Sabhas.
  • Jammu and Kashmir, September and October 2024: the first assembly election since 2014 and the first since the reorganisation of 2019. The National Conference and Congress alliance won and Omar Abdullah took office as Chief Minister on 16 October 2024. Statehood has still to be restored.
  • Delhi, February 2025: the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power in the capital after twenty-seven years and Rekha Gupta became Chief Minister.
  • Bihar, November 2025: the National Democratic Alliance won 202 of the 243 seats with over forty per cent of the vote. The Bharatiya Janata Party became the single largest party in the state for the first time with 89 seats, the Janata Dal (United) won 85, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal was reduced to 25. Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister for a record tenth time on 20 November 2025.
  • Assam, April 2026: the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies retained power and Himanta Biswa Sarma continued as Chief Minister for a second term.
  • Kerala, polled 9 April 2026, counted 4 May 2026: the United Democratic Front defeated the Left Democratic Front and V. D. Satheesan of the Congress became Chief Minister, ending the second Pinarayi Vijayan government.
  • Tamil Nadu, polled 23 April 2026, counted 4 May 2026: the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, the party founded by the actor Vijay, emerged as the largest party with 108 of the 234 seats and formed a coalition government. C. Joseph Vijay was sworn in as Chief Minister on 10 May 2026, the first head of government in the state from outside the two Dravidian parties in fifty-nine years. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam became the principal opposition.
  • West Bengal, polled 23 and 29 April 2026, counted 4 May 2026: the Bharatiya Janata Party won a majority and formed a government in the state for the first time, ending three consecutive terms of the Trinamool Congress. Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as Chief Minister on 9 May 2026.
  • Puducherry, April 2026: the All India N.R. Congress retained office and N. Rangaswamy continued as Chief Minister.

The Supreme Court and the Constitution

Several of the defining political events of these years were decided in court rather than in Parliament. Each of the judgments below is standard examination material, and the pattern to notice is that the Court has been readier to review process, such as how money reaches parties or how a Governor sits on a bill, than to reopen questions of policy.

  • Janhit Abhiyan v Union of India, November 2022: the Supreme Court upheld the 103rd Amendment providing ten per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections, by a majority of three to two.
  • In re Article 370, December 2023: the Court upheld the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, directed that assembly elections be held by September 2024, and directed that statehood be restored at the earliest.
  • Association for Democratic Reforms v Union of India, February 2024: a five judge bench unanimously struck down the electoral bonds scheme as violating the right to information under Article 19(1)(a), and ordered the State Bank of India to disclose the details of bonds issued and encashed.
  • Anoop Baranwal v Union of India, March 2023: the Court directed that election commissioners be appointed by a committee including the Chief Justice of India, until Parliament legislated. Parliament then legislated a different composition later the same year.
  • State of Tamil Nadu v Governor, April 2025: the Court held that the Governor's prolonged inaction on ten re-passed state bills was illegal and set enforceable timelines for the Governor and the President.
  • In re Assent, Withholding or Reservation of Bills, Presidential Reference No. 1 of 2025, decided 20 November 2025: answering fourteen questions referred by the President under Article 143, a constitution bench held that the courts cannot impose fixed deadlines on the Governor or the President because the Constitution prescribes none, and that there can therefore be no deemed assent, while holding that they must nonetheless act within a reasonable time.
  • Waqf (Amendment) Act litigation, 2025 and 2026: the Court declined to stay the Act as a whole but suspended the operation of specific provisions by interim order while the challenge is heard.
  • Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls: the exercise begun in Bihar in 2025 and extended to other states produced large-scale deletions and a wave of litigation. On 27 May 2026 the Supreme Court upheld the revision as an exercise carried out by the Election Commission in furtherance of free and fair elections, while affirming that persons born in India have the right to be on the rolls.

Institutions and Federal Friction

Outside the headline events, the same structural arguments recur: who controls the services in Delhi, how far a Governor may go in a state governed by a rival party, how the Election Commission is staffed, and whether elections should be synchronised. These are the questions that make up most of the polity commentary of the period.

  • Delhi services: in May 2023 the Supreme Court held that the elected Delhi government controlled services other than police, public order and land. Parliament then enacted the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2023, creating an authority in which the Lieutenant Governor's view prevails, and the constitutional dispute continued.
  • Governors and state legislatures: disputes over delayed assent, the summoning of the House and the nomination of members arose in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal and Telangana, and produced the two decisions of 2025 described above.
  • The Election Commission: the appointment law of 2023, the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision, and the removal of the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee were the central controversies. Gyanesh Kumar was appointed Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025 under the new law.
  • Simultaneous elections: the high level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind reported in March 2024 in favour of holding Lok Sabha and assembly elections together, followed by local body elections within a hundred days. The recommendation became the 129th Amendment Bill, which remains with a joint committee.
  • Delimitation and the southern states: because the freeze on the allocation of Lok Sabha seats runs to the first census after 2026, delimitation has become a live federal issue, with several southern states arguing that they should not lose weight in Parliament for having controlled their population growth.
  • Anti-defection and the Tenth Schedule: disputes in Maharashtra, in which the Shiv Sena split in 2022 and the Nationalist Congress Party in 2023, kept the powers of the Speaker and the timelines for deciding disqualification petitions in the news.
  • Data and rights legislation: the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, was enacted, and the Telecommunications Act, 2023, replaced colonial era telegraph law.

A Compact Timeline

Use this as the last thing you revise. If you can reconstruct the sequence, most factual questions on the period answer themselves.

  • 2020: the 104th Amendment; the national lockdown under the Disaster Management Act; the three farm laws in September.
  • 2021: the 105th Amendment; the repeal of the farm laws in November and December.
  • 2022: Droupadi Murmu elected President in July and Jagdeep Dhankhar Vice President in August; the EWS reservation upheld in November.
  • 2023: the Anoop Baranwal judgment in March; the Delhi services judgment in May and the amending Act in August; the 106th Amendment on women's reservation in September; the three new criminal laws and the Article 370 judgment in December.
  • 2024: the electoral bonds scheme struck down in February; the Kovind committee report in March; the general election and the third Modi government in June; the new criminal laws in force on 1 July; the Jammu and Kashmir election in September and October; the simultaneous elections bills in December.
  • 2025: the Chief Election Commissioner appointed under the new law in February; the Delhi election in February; the Tamil Nadu Governor judgment in April; the Waqf Amendment Act in April; the resignation of the Vice President in July and the election of C. P. Radhakrishnan in September; the 130th Amendment Bill in August; the Presidential Reference answered in November; the Bihar election in November.
  • 2026: the Supreme Court upholds the Special Intensive Revision in May; assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry in April and May, with changes of government in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal; the joint committee on simultaneous elections continues its work.

Key Terms

Simultaneous elections
The proposal, recommended by the Kovind committee in March 2024 and embodied in the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, that elections to the Lok Sabha and to all state assemblies be held together, with local body elections following within a hundred days.
Special Intensive Revision
An exhaustive door to door revision of the electoral roll by the Election Commission, in which every existing entry must be re-established rather than merely corrected. Begun in Bihar in 2025 and upheld by the Supreme Court on 27 May 2026.
Presidential Reference
A reference by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 seeking its opinion on a question of law or fact of public importance. The opinion is advisory and not binding. Reference No. 1 of 2025 on the assent of Governors was answered on 20 November 2025.
Waqf by use
The principle by which land long used for religious or charitable purposes was treated as waqf even without a formal deed. It was removed by the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, which is among the changes challenged before the Supreme Court.

Practice Quiz — 20 Questions

correct out of 20

  1. The 106th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2023, is popularly known as:

    • A.The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam
    • B.The Nagrik Suraksha Adhiniyam
    • C.The Panchayati Raj Amendment
    • D.The Anti-Defection Amendment
    A. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — It reserves one third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies for women, and is titled the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam.

  2. The women's reservation under the 106th Amendment comes into effect only after:

    • A.Presidential assent
    • B.Ratification by all states
    • C.A census and a delimitation exercise
    • D.The next general election
    C. A census and a delimitation exercise — The Act itself makes the reservation operative only after a census has been conducted and delimitation carried out on its basis.

  3. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced which law, and from what date?

    • A.The Code of Criminal Procedure, from 1 January 2024
    • B.The Indian Penal Code, from 1 July 2024
    • C.The Indian Evidence Act, from 1 July 2024
    • D.The Indian Penal Code, from 26 January 2025
    B. The Indian Penal Code, from 1 July 2024 — The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and all three new criminal laws came into force on 1 July 2024.

  4. In February 2024 the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme mainly for violating:

    • A.Article 14, the right to equality
    • B.Article 19(1)(a), which includes the right to information
    • C.Article 21, the right to life
    • D.Article 32, the right to constitutional remedies
    B. Article 19(1)(a), which includes the right to information — The five judge bench held unanimously that anonymous political funding violated the voter's right to information under Article 19(1)(a).

  5. In December 2023, while upholding the abrogation of Article 370, the Supreme Court directed that assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir be held by:

    • A.December 2023
    • B.March 2024
    • C.September 2024
    • D.December 2025
    C. September 2024 — The Court directed elections by 30 September 2024 and the restoration of statehood at the earliest.

  6. Who became Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir after the 2024 assembly election?

    • A.Mehbooba Mufti
    • B.Omar Abdullah
    • C.Ghulam Nabi Azad
    • D.Farooq Abdullah
    B. Omar Abdullah — Omar Abdullah of the National Conference took office on 16 October 2024 after the first assembly election in the region since 2014.

  7. How many seats did the Bharatiya Janata Party win on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha election?

    • A.272
    • B.303
    • C.240
    • D.224
    C. 240 — The party won 240 seats, short of a majority on its own, while the National Democratic Alliance together won about 293.

  8. Who became Leader of the Opposition in the eighteenth Lok Sabha?

    • A.Mallikarjun Kharge
    • B.Rahul Gandhi
    • C.Akhilesh Yadav
    • D.Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
    B. Rahul Gandhi — Rahul Gandhi took the office, which had been vacant through the sixteenth and seventeenth Lok Sabhas for want of a party with the required strength.

  9. Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned as Vice President of India in:

    • A.January 2025
    • B.July 2025
    • C.September 2025
    • D.August 2024
    B. July 2025 — He resigned on 21 July 2025, citing health, which caused the mid-term vice-presidential election.

  10. C. P. Radhakrishnan was elected Vice President of India in September 2025 by defeating:

    • A.Margaret Alva
    • B.B. Sudershan Reddy
    • C.Gopalkrishna Gandhi
    • D.Hamid Ansari
    B. B. Sudershan Reddy — He defeated the opposition candidate B. Sudershan Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court.

  11. In the Bihar assembly election of November 2025, the National Democratic Alliance won how many of the 243 seats?

    • A.125
    • B.160
    • C.202
    • D.225
    C. 202 — The alliance won 202 seats with more than forty per cent of the vote, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal was reduced to 25.

  12. Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar in November 2025 for which term?

    • A.Seventh
    • B.Eighth
    • C.Ninth
    • D.Tenth
    D. Tenth — It was a record tenth swearing-in as Chief Minister of Bihar.

  13. Which party formed the government in Tamil Nadu after the 2026 assembly election?

    • A.The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
    • B.The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
    • C.The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam
    • D.The Indian National Congress
    C. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam — The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, founded by the actor Vijay, won 108 of 234 seats and C. Joseph Vijay became Chief Minister on 10 May 2026.

  14. Who became Chief Minister of West Bengal after the 2026 assembly election?

    • A.Mamata Banerjee
    • B.Suvendu Adhikari
    • C.Abhishek Banerjee
    • D.Dilip Ghosh
    B. Suvendu Adhikari — The Bharatiya Janata Party won a majority in the state for the first time and Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in on 9 May 2026.

  15. The 2026 Kerala assembly election resulted in:

    • A.A third consecutive term for the Left Democratic Front
    • B.A victory for the United Democratic Front, with V. D. Satheesan as Chief Minister
    • C.A hung assembly and President's rule
    • D.A National Democratic Alliance government
    B. A victory for the United Democratic Front, with V. D. Satheesan as Chief Minister — The United Democratic Front defeated the Left Democratic Front and V. D. Satheesan of the Congress became Chief Minister.

  16. The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, proposes the removal of a Minister who is arrested and detained for:

    • A.Fifteen consecutive days
    • B.Thirty consecutive days
    • C.Sixty consecutive days
    • D.Ninety consecutive days
    B. Thirty consecutive days — It applies where the detention runs for thirty consecutive days on a charge punishable with five years or more, and reappointment is permitted after release.

  17. The committee that recommended simultaneous elections in March 2024 was chaired by:

    • A.Ram Nath Kovind
    • B.P. P. Chaudhary
    • C.Justice B. N. Srikrishna
    • D.M. Venkaiah Naidu
    A. Ram Nath Kovind — The high level committee was chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, and its recommendation became the 129th Amendment Bill.

  18. In its advisory opinion of 20 November 2025 on the assent of Governors, the Supreme Court held that:

    • A.A bill is deemed to have received assent if the Governor does not act within three months
    • B.Courts cannot impose fixed deadlines and there is no deemed assent, but Governors must act within a reasonable time
    • C.The Governor may withhold assent indefinitely
    • D.Only the President may set timelines for Governors
    B. Courts cannot impose fixed deadlines and there is no deemed assent, but Governors must act within a reasonable time — The bench answered the Presidential Reference by holding that the Constitution prescribes no timelines, so courts cannot create them or read in deemed assent, while inaction for long periods is impermissible.

  19. The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, received presidential assent on:

    • A.5 April 2025
    • B.3 April 2025
    • C.1 July 2025
    • D.15 August 2025
    A. 5 April 2025 — The Lok Sabha passed it on 3 April, the Rajya Sabha on 4 April and the President assented on 5 April 2025.

  20. On 27 May 2026 the Supreme Court delivered a judgment concerning:

    • A.The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls
    • B.The abrogation of Article 370
    • C.The electoral bonds scheme
    • D.The anti-defection law in Maharashtra
    A. The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls — The Court upheld the Special Intensive Revision as an exercise carried out by the Election Commission in furtherance of free and fair elections.

References