History of Madhya Pradesh Legislature

The Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha or the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The seat of the Vidhan Sabha is at Bhopal, the capital of the state. It is housed in the Vidhan Bhavan, an imposing building located at the centre of the Capital Complex in Arena Hill locality of Bhopal city. The term of the Vidhan Sabha is five years, unless dissolved sooner. Presently, it comprises 230 members, who are directly elected from single-seat constituencies and one nominated member. Ishwar Das Rohani is the current speaker of the house.

The history of Madhya Pradesh legislature can be traced back to 1913, as the Central Provinces Legislative Council was formed on 8 November of this year. Later, the Government of India Act 1935 provided for the elected Central Provinces Legislative assembly. The first elections to the Central Provinces Legislative Assembly were held in 1937. After Indian independence in 1947, the erstwhile province of Central Provinces and Berar along with a number of princely states merged with the Indian Union, became a new state, Madhya Pradesh. The strength of the legislative assembly of this state was 184. The present-day Madhya Pradesh state came into existence on 1 November 1956 following the reorganization of states. It was created by merging the erstwhile Madhya Pradesh (without the Marathi speaking areas, which were merged with Bombay state), Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal states. The strengths of the legislative assemblies of Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal were 79, 48 and 23 respectively. On 1 November 1956 the legislative assemblies of all four erstwhile states were also merged to form the reorganized Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. The tenure of this first Vidhan Sabha was very short, it was dissolved on 5 March 1957. The first elections to the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha were held in 1957 and the second Vidhan Sabha was constituted on 1 April 1957. Initially, the strength of the Vidhan Sabha was 288 which was later enhanced to 321, including one nominated member. On 1 November 2000, a new state, Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh state. As a result, the strength of the Vidhan Sabha was reduced to 231, including a nominated member. The present house, the Thirteenth Vidhan Sabha was constituted on 11 December 2008.