election results: Pratibha PATIL elected president; percent of vote - Pratibha PATIL 65.8%, Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT - 34.2%
Legislative branch:
bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of the Council of States or Rajya Sabha (a body consisting of not more than 250 members up to 12 of whom are appointed by the president, the remainder are chosen by the elected members of the state and territorial assemblies; members serve six-year terms) and the People's Assembly or Lok Sabha (545 seats; 543 members elected by popular vote, 2 appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms)
elections: People's Assembly - last held in five phases on 16, 22-23, 30 April and 7, 13 May 2009 (next must be held by May 2014)
election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - INC 206, BJP 116, SP 23, BSP 21, JD (U) 20, AITC 19, DMK 18, CPI-M 16, BJD 14, SS 11, AIADMK 9, NCP 9, other 61, vacant 2; note - seats by party as November 2009 - INC 207, BJP 116, SP 22, BSP 21, JD (U) 20, AITC 19, DMK 18, CPI-M 16, BJD 14, SS 11, AIADMK 9, NCP 9, other 61, vacant 2
Judicial branch:
Supreme Court (one chief justice and 25 associate justices are appointed by the president and remain in office until they reach the age of 65 or are removed for "proved misbehavior")
Political parties and leaders:
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or AIADMK [J.
JAYALALITHAA]; All India Trinamool Congress or AITC [Mamata
BANERJEE]; Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI]; Bharatiya Janata
Party or BJP [Nitin GADKARI]; Biju Janata Dal or BJD [Naveen
PATNAIK]; Communist Party of India or CPI [B. BARDHAN]; Communist
Party of India-Marxist or CPI-M [Prakash KARAT]; Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam or DMK [Kalaignar M.KARUNANIDHI]; Indian National Congress
or INC [Sonia GANDHI]; Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) [Sharad YADAV];
Left Front (an alliance of Indian leftist parties); Nationalist
Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR]; Rashtriya Lok Dal or RLD [Ajit
SINGH]; Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV]; Shiromani Akali
Dal or SAD [Parkash Singh BADAL]; Shiv Sena or SS [Bal THACKERAY];
Telugu Desam Party or TDP [Chandrababu NAIDU]; note - India has
dozens of national and regional political parties; only parties or
coalitions with four or more seats in the People's Assembly are
listed
Political pressure groups and leaders: