{"id":73284,"date":"2026-05-08T18:13:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=73284"},"modified":"2026-05-08T18:23:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:53:45","slug":"governor-hung-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-05-2026\/governor-hung-assembly","title":{"rendered":"Governor&#8217;s Role in a Hung Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tamil Nadu&#8217;s 2026 elections produced a hung Assembly, TVK (Vijay&#8217;s party) won 108 seats, short of the 118-seat majority mark in the 234-seat House.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Is a Hung Assembly?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When <strong>no single party wins a clear majority,<\/strong> the Assembly is called &#8220;hung.&#8221; This triggers coalition negotiations and reliance on smaller parties or independents.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Governor steps in as the key constitutional officer<\/strong> to decide who gets the first invitation to form the government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Constitutional Provisions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Article 163:<\/strong> Governor acts on Council of Ministers&#8217; advice, except where he must use discretion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Article 164(1):<\/strong> Governor appoints the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers. In a hung Assembly, he wields discretion in inviting parties to form the government. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Article 163(2): <\/strong>&nbsp;If any question arises whether a matter requires the Governor&#8217;s discretion, his decision is final and cannot be called in question.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Role of Governor in Hung Assembly<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To exercise this power, the <strong>Governor invites the party <\/strong>that has the people\u2019s mandate and stakes a claim to form the government.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Governor then<strong> fixes a time to administer the oath<\/strong> of office to the Chief Minister designate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A pro-tem speaker<\/strong> is appointed, usually the senior-most legislator among the elected, <strong>to administer the oath<\/strong> to the MLAs and <strong>conduct a floor test.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A floor test (also called a \u2018trust vote\u2019)<\/strong> is held in legislative bodies, to find out whether the government that is suspected to have lost the majority still retains the confidence of the House. This is done through a vote among the members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In case the <strong>Governor comes to the conclusion <\/strong>that no government can be formed under the given composition of the Assembly, he <strong>can recommend to the Central government the imposition of President\u2019s rule.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reports and SC Judgements on Role of Governor<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Sarkaria Commission Report (1983):<\/strong> It stated that<strong> <\/strong>if a single party <strong>has an absolute majority<\/strong> in the Assembly, the<strong> leader of that party<\/strong> should automatically be asked to become the Chief Minister.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>However,<strong> if there is no such party,<\/strong> the governor should select a Chief Minister from among the following parties <strong>in the order of preference indicated below:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An <strong>alliance of parties <\/strong>that was formed prior to the elections.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The largest single party staking a claim to form the government with the <strong>support of others, <\/strong>including \u201cindependents.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A post-electoral coalition of parties, <\/strong>with all the partners in the coalition joining the government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A post-electoral alliance of parties,<\/strong> with some of the parties in the alliance forming a Government and the remaining parties, including \u201cindependents\u201d, supporting the Government from outside.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Punchhi Commission (2007): <\/strong>It broadly endorsed the Sarkaria framework but added that the <strong>Governors should act with constitutional neutrality<\/strong> and not as political agents.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It said that a <strong>floor test should be conducted <\/strong>as early as possible to determine the majority.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Further, <strong>pre-poll alliances should be prioritised<\/strong> over post-poll arrangements, as they reflect a clearer electoral mandate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>SC judgements: In SR Bommai v. Union of India (1994),<\/strong> the SC held that the Governor must invite the leader of the party commanding a majority in the House, or the single-largest party\/group, to form the Government.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>In 2006, in Rameshwar Prasad v Union of India<\/strong>: The Court warned against premature dissolution and stressed that political parties must be given a <strong>fair opportunity to form a government.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In 2016, involving a similar crisis in Uttarakhand <\/strong>as well, the SC had underlined the<strong> floor test as the \u201cultimate\u201d option<\/strong> and directed then Congress CM Harish Rawat to prove majority on the floor of the house.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/tamil-nadu\/tamil-nadu-government-formation-options-and-precedents-before-governor-arlekar\/article70950792.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> In News\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Tamil Nadu&#8217;s 2026 elections produced a hung Assembly, TVK (Vijay&#8217;s party) won 108 seats, short of the 118-seat majority mark in the 234-seat House. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> What Is a Hung Assembly? <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> When no single party wins a clear majority, the Assembly is called &#8220;hung.&#8221; This triggers coalition negotiations and reliance on smaller parties or independents.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The Governor steps in as the key constitutional officer to decide who gets the first invitation to form the government. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-05-2026\/governor-hung-assembly \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73293,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73284\/revisions\/73293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}