List of states of India by type of legislature

The Indian constitution allows for states to have either a unicameral or bicameral legislature. A state is said to be unicameral if it has only one house of parliament. The numbers in the brackets indicate the number of seats in the lower and upper house respectively. Most of the newer states are unicameral and only a few of the older states (5 states out of 29) still remain bicameral. In a state with a bicameral legislature, the lower house is called the Legislative Assembly or Vidhan Sabha and the upper house is called the Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad. By law, the upper house can not be more than 1/3 the total size of the lower house but must have more than 40 seats (except in the case of the state of Jammu and Kashmir which is allowed by special legislation to have less than 40 seats in its Legislative Council.)

The upper house, Vidhan Parishad has limited legislative powers, and was primarily intended for consultation and can not hold up legislation passed by the lower house, the Vidhan Sabha for more than a few months. The Legislative Assembly is composed of members directly elected from individual constituencies while the upper house, the Legislative Council consists of members indirectly elected by the Lower House, members nominated for by the State government, and members elected from specially designated teacher's and graduate's constituencies.

Andhra Pradesh abolished its upper house in 1984 but is now in the process of setting up a new Legislative Council. The legislation for this has already been passed by the Parliament of India and the state Legislative Assembly and Andhra Pradesh will have a bicameral legislature following elections in 2007.

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List of Unicameral and Bicameral States in India in decreasing order of size of legislature

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State	Legislature type	Size
West Bengal	Unicameral	295
Tamil Nadu	Unicameral	235
Madhya Pradesh	Unicameral	231
Rajasthan	Unicameral	200
Gujarat	Unicameral	182
Orissa	Unicameral	147
Kerala	Unicameral	141
Assam	Unicameral	126
Punjab	Unicameral	117
Haryana	Unicameral	90
Chhattisgarh	Unicameral	90
Jharkhand	Unicameral	81
Himachal Pradesh	Unicameral	68
Arunachal Pradesh	Unicameral	60
Tripura	Unicameral	60
Nagaland	Unicameral	60
Manipur	Unicameral	60
Meghalaya	Unicameral	60
Goa	Unicameral	40
Mizoram	Unicameral	40
Sikkim	Unicameral	32
Uttarakhand	Unicameral	70
Pondicherry	Unicameral	30
Delhi	Unicameral	70
Andhra Pradesh	Unicameral	295

State	Legislature type	Size
Uttar Pradesh	Bicameral	404 + 108
Maharashtra	Bicameral	289 + 78
Bihar	Bicameral	243 + 96
Karnataka	Bicameral	224 + 75
Jammu and Kashmir	Bicameral	89 + 36

"See also: States and territories of India"