First-Past-the-Post

First-Past-the-Post is the electoral system where whichever candidate gets the most votes in a constituency wins that seat outright — no majority required.

• This is why a candidate can win with well under 50% of the vote if the remaining votes are split across several rivals — exactly how Gurmat won the Class Rep election with only 12 of 33 votes, far short of a majority.
• India uses this system for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies specifically because it's simple to run and count at enormous scale — a real advantage given nearly a billion eligible voters and 543 constituencies.
• Critics note a real trade-off: a party's seat count doesn't always match its overall vote share nationally, since votes for losing candidates in any one constituency simply don't count toward anything.
• Not every Indian election uses First-Past-the-Post, though — the Rajya Sabha and presidential elections instead use a single transferable vote system, chosen specifically because it better protects smaller states' representation.